The Vulcan.
LONDON: Can you do an oil change in 90 secs? Yes, you can – with Castrol Nexcel.
Castrol has just rolled out the new technology that it says marks the most significant oil change innovation in automotive history.
The Nexcel oil cell, an easy-to-change unit containing both engine oil and filter, is said to deliver superior engine performance and improved environmental sustainability.
The new technology allows oil to be changed in around 90 seconds, more than 13 times faster than a conventional oil change of 20 minutes
The Aston Martin Vulcan track-only supercar will be the first vehicle featuring Nexcel technology. Road cars fitted with Nexcel are expected to go into production within five years.
Testing and installing Nexcel on a low volume car like the Vulcan allowed the oil cell’s development to be accelerated, meaning it will be ready for mass market production much sooner. Castrol is currently in discussions with several other vehicle manufacturers.
“We believe this is the biggest leap forward in oil change technology in the history of the combustion engine," said Castrol CEO Paul Waterman.
"Castrol’s engineers are leaders in their field and have come up with a really innovative piece of technology. It’s the result of almost three years’ work but as soon as people see the benefits in emissions and servicing as well as the substantial environmental benefits, they will ask why it hasn’t been done before.”
The Nexcel system has been tested on a range of engines from very small city cars to high-powered racing engines in the most extreme of conditions. It functioned smoothly even under severe braking of up to 1.8G, the equivalent of a vehicle travelling at 100kph stopping dead in 1.6 seconds. Additionally, the system oil flow has been tested up to 600 litres a minute –10 to 20 times greater than seen in a conventional passenger car engine.
The system offers manufacturers and motorists three primary benefits in performance, servicing and sustainability:
> Castrol has demonstrated that Nexcel delivers a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on modern engines. Moreover the technology paves the way for a new generation of precision-engineered engine oils delivering further engine performance & CO2 benefits.
> Nexcel makes the oil change super quick and clean for workshops, allowing them to offer more flexible and convenient service options to customers.
> Oil cells are collected after use, avoiding wastage of used oil. This oil can then be re-refined back into high quality lubricants. If Nexcel were fitted onto every car in the world today, it would save more than 200,000 road tankers of virgin oil from being produced, every year.
