BMW drops Castrol - goes to Shell / Pennzoil

[Crickett]

Interesting indeed … like NorCal, I’ll probably just keep getting the “BMW High Performance” 5W-30, regardless of who makes it, so long as it stays ~$7/qt!

But what is to become of the Motorsport colors, since the red is Castrol red, and the cobalt blue is the mixture of Bavarian blue and Castrol Red?!

I thought the red was Texaco?

[brettbimmer]

Interesting indeed … like NorCal, I’ll probably just keep getting the “BMW High Performance” 5W-30, regardless of who makes it, so long as it stays ~$7/qt!



I thought the red was Texaco?

Interesting question. I had never heard that it was possibly Texaco until you mentioned it here. What I find interesting is that I have never seen any early BMW race cars with any Texaco livery, or any mention of that anywhere in my reading of BMW history over the years. That said, there are BMW race cars that have Castrol sponsorship on them, and some of us even have "Castrol" on the oil caps on our M54 engines. They also make many of the BMW factory oils. With that said, would BMW have partnered with an American fuel company like this years ago? Any of our other historians have some input to clarify this for us? Searching the internet is giving mixed opinions and even less clarity, as usual.

Sent from my pineapple under the sea.

[brettbimmer]

Actually a bit of Castrol history from their website dovetails with the early days at Bavarian Motor Works. Nonetheless, still curious if anyone else has more info on the motorsport stripe color red.

"Castrol was founded by Charles “Cheers” Wakefield under the name of ‘CC Wakefield & Company’. In 1899, when he was 39, Charles left a job at Vacuum Oil to start a new business at Cheapside in London, selling lubricants for trains and heavy machinery. He was a persuasive man who could articulate a vision, clearly, and eight former colleagues followed him into the new company. Early in the new century, Wakefield took a personal interest in two sporty new motorised contraptions – the automobile and the aeroplane. The company started developing lubricants especially for these new engines, which needed oils that were runny enough to work from cold at start-up and thick enough to keep working at very high temperatures. Wakefield researchers found that adding a measure of castor oil, a vegetable oil made from castor beans, did the trick nicely. They called the new product “Castrol.”" - Castrol history from their own website.

[Crickett]

This is the blog entry that I keep coming across when I look up the M colors:

BMW Blog: BMW ///M Logo Colors Explained

[Johnny]

Works for me, have always liked Pennzoil oils, all the way back when I ran it in my 1973 VW Super Bug. Although difficult to find reasonably priced, I use Pennzoil Ultra Euro 5W40 here in Florida in our recent buy of an 2006 330ci convertible and our 1998 Volvo S90 we've had 17 years. Have viewed very good UOAs on Bobistheoilguy forum for this oil. Hmm, may use the new BMW oil in my Volvo as the Ultra 5W40 is being discontinued by Pennzoil.

[llll1l1ll]

so are you saying if I go and ask for a quart of oil at the BMW dealership after the new year I will keep getting the old stuff?

I'm wondering the same thing. I only ever use BMW oil.

[Whammy]

I use Mobil 1. No impact here.

[Johal E32]

I was already running Shell oil

[Crickett]

So, here it is, guys, the NEW OE BMW oil:

BMW TwinPower Turbo 5W-30 (P/N 83.21-2 365 946) – $7.88/qt at ECS


For reference, the previous OE oil:

BMW High Performance Synthetic 5W-30 (P/N 07.51-0 017 866) – $7.99/qt at ECS


So . . . do we know anything about this new oil?

[quikryptonite]

I just bought some from BMW of Fairfax, I guess we'll see how it goes. Can't imagine it would be too different for us. I think it was just engineered to mesh with forced induction engines.