Button Tells CT Need For Good Lube

Formula 1 legend Jenson Button is famous for his cool, calm and collected driving style. But even the former world champion knows he’d be nowhere without a reliable car, and that’s where the guys from ExxonMobil come in.

These chaps are serious about their work. They have to be. I chatted to a guy who told me - without even a hint of a smirk - that he was in charge of the lubes department. Imagine having to tell your friends that’s your job! Rather than helping porn stars and adventurous folk ‘in the back door’, the Mobil 1 crew are actually dedicated to getting your engine working as efficiently as possible.

You might wonder how a multi-million quid F1 engine can relate to your beat up Corsa, but when it comes down to it all engines work the same. I’ll try to explain without referring to more sexual lubrication jokes, but you can use your imagination. Basically the oil covers the relevant components making them slide in and out and up and down with less effort from the engine.

So what’s the upshot of a more efficient engine? Reduced friction means the engine isn’t working as hard so you should see better fuel economy, and the engine components will last longer which means less time spent in the garage. Put simply, paying a little more for oil in the short term could result in extra moolah in the long run. Result.

This could all quite easily come off as PR gumpf, but ExxonMobil treated me to a little proof. Sitting in the car park of the epic Leatherhead office is the staff's pride and joy: a 1990 BMW E30 325i. That has done 1,000,000 miles. And in case you need help getting your head round that, we’re talking the equivalent to 69 years of regular driving or 40 laps of the equator.

In 1990, BMW decided to do a little experiment to see just how important a decent oil is, so they rigged up their brand new motor and for 4 years the engine turned over, day and night. The only stops were to observe BMW’s recommended maintenance schedule for stuff like the spark plugs and belts, and 7,500 mile upper limit for oil changes.

http://youtu.be/gHmMlU8Q-V8

It turns out, looking after your car is worth it, as when the magic 1,000,000 flicked up on the dash, the engineers set about analysing the engine components. It was in such good nick that some components, including major stuff like the pistons, were still within factory specifications to be fitted to a new car. There wasn’t even any reduction in performance, although I can’t really say how the 170bhp felt as I was taken on the slowest loop of Epsom you could ever imagine. As a side note, the snail’s pace did give me more time to enjoy the old school interior. Retro cars are awesome.

So there you have it. Motor oil is cool, even my new best mate JB thinks so. And in case you think CT and JB have gone soft talking about MPG rather than MPH, I’ll finish with a little story he shared with us. Back when he was 20, Jenson was driving for BMW. As is a standard perk he was given a brand new diesel Beemer as a daily driver. While in France one day, the local Gendarmerie clocked him going “some speed over the limit” and issued a fine. BMW, being awesome, paid the fine for young Button because “they were just impressed I’d actually managed to go that fast.”