I dumped out the VR1 from my car yesterday. It did not look too good. It was a very odd brownish color and I dont want to say it, but there may have been some shiny stuff mixed in. Not too sure as it was dark out. It had 1500 miles on it, 4 auto-x events and one drag strip day over a 3 month period. A sample is already on its way to Blackstone to find out for sure. I might be building a stroker sooner then I thought.... This time around I put in Lucas Racing synthetic so we will see if it does any better.

How many auto-x races do you guys do before changing the oil? Should I cut it back to every 2 races instead of 4?

 

you know vr1 syn is sapphire blue, right?

non syn vr1 is a dusty brown color, little different than most non syn oils.

 

Yes, that I do know. We have been using VR1 at my work for many years. It just didnt look right to me. I will see if I can take a sample out of my drain bucket and post a picture tonight.

 

AutoX isn't very demanding when compared to something like 4 x 20 minute sessions at a trackday. I changed my oil after 2000-3000 miles when autocrossing, including driving to and from the events. Maybe 2-3 times per season.

 

Depends, I guess. My local AX events are so short, I don't even include them in the mileage for my oil change interval. It's a bunch of 2nd gear runs where my engine never really sees much RPM or heat. I know most AX events have larger venues and possibly stress the car more... but I really can't imagine it being hard on oil, really.

 

The auto-x courses out here are typically pretty big. Some layouts you are in 3rd gear for half the track. But most of them, I am consistently bouncing off the limiter in 2nd for most of the course. I guess, put it this way, most of the times the laps are about a minute and have been as long as a minute and a half per lap. I would say a day at auto-x is equal to one 20 min big track session.

 

Ours are also about a minute...we're just going slower... We only get about 3-5mins of driving.. I'm definitely not seeing the oil temps I see during a 20min track day session, though. I wish our local events were as fast as yours. I'd definitely do more.

 

Here is the last one I did. This is pretty much me standing toward the top of the course in the middle (couple turns behind me you cant see). Might give you an idea of how big the tracks really are. It takes about 20 min to walk the course haha.

 

Luuuuucky. Ours are all "Miata" courses.

 

I love all forms of Motorsport but sustained 20 min track sessions are in no way equal to a day of auto-x.

You just do not put the same heat into the car. Auto-x gives time to cool and recuperate for all systems on the car. A track session does not.

Another way of thinking about it is that on an average road course you would be at sustained WOT in one lap for longer than the average of WOT across at least three auto-x runs.

btw these are not guesses, this is based on years of pouring over datalogs from both use cases.

 

Got my VR1 results back. They are pretty much identical to every other oil I have run. We will see if the Lucas thats in it now does any better but its not looking promising. Probably just going to go back to Rotella and call it a day. No need to spend extra money on fancy oil if its not helping at all.

 

The tune,backpressure and how soft the rev limit is will play more of a role then good engine oil for auto x. Those details are still important for the road course but most are using a premium oil for heat at that point.
You could also cut the filter open incase its shedding material you can make the call to refresh the engine.

 

My engine is healthy so I'm not worried about that. I was just hoping that one oil over another would show improvements for how I use my car. But apparently auto-x does virtually nothing for wear. As long as the oil is fresh, whatever oil it is, it works just fine.

In a month or so, I should be up another 100whp so we will see what that does to my wear patterns. It's going to be a busy auto-x year for me so we will see what kind of data I can come up with.

 

Are you doing these oil changes back to back? It's hard to establish anything with that method. You need to do a few in a row of the same oil to establish a trend. Small variances in aluminum, iron, and copper can tell you a lot. One of the biggest benefits of good oil is longevity of performance. If you're not comfortable with a longer OCI then you may be fine with "cheaper" oils. Rotella T6 is a severly hydrocracked group III base, which is a good performer in most cases.

 

RWD - Alright so longevity is kinda what I am trying to figure out. Since I dont drive the car much on the street, most of the time on the oil is from racing. So its hard for me to go by mileage. What I am trying to figure out is how many races I can go before its actually time to change the oil. My past 3 results have had about the same amount of events on each oil change but say one oil change had 1500 miles on it, the next had 3000 miles. I really dont think the 1500 mile difference had any affect on the results. Right now, I am averaging 4 auto-x events per oil change and 1000-2000 miles. I am going to try 6 events and maybe 2000-3000 miles next time and see what it does. Pretty sure I will be sticking with the Lucas oil thats in it now since I get it for about the same price as T6. That should help keep my results consistent with the only variables being events/mileage on the oil.