I can actually answer this question. At least as it related to the
Newman/Haas IndyCar team. I am talking many years ago. A very good friend
of mine worked for Amoco at the time. Amoco was one of the title sponsors
of the two cars owned by Newman/Haas. At the time they were both driven by
Mario and Michael Andretti. I think this was around 1989/90.
At that time the only synthetic motor oil that could be purchased was Mobil
1, Amsoil and Redline. At least that was all I remember. :)
Amoco actually came up with a 100% Synthetic Motor Oil for the Newman/Haas
IndyCar Team. The oil was NEVER sold to the public, but it was produced.
How do I know? I used to get about 6 cases a year for 2 years from my
friend! I might even have a quart somewhere in my garage.
This oil was created in limited quantities and was used exclusively by
Newman/Haas. Amoco never released a synthetic onto the US market. It was a
race only product. They created a few tankers worth of the stuff each
season for Newman/Haas to use and anything that was not needed by the race
team was actually bottled and sent to the Amoco reps to give away to their
customers. That is how I got my hands on it. At the time when I was
auto-x'ing I put on Amoco sticker on my GTI and got to have the oil for
free. It actually worked much better than Mobil 1 at the time, which was
not a 100% synthetic until just recently. It used to be based on Dino Oil.
Thought you might like to know how at least one oil company worked! :)
Larry Joffe
SM #27/127
2000 Audi TT Quattro
http://larrytt.dnsalias.org
larry@auditt.org
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