A British-based brand of lubricants serving both automotive needs and industrial sectors, Castrol has now become a household name, synonymous with premium performance and dependability. Today, Castrol manufactures an extensive and diverse range of greases and oils, along with many other associated products for both specialist and standard lubrication applications.
The origins of Castrol
Charles Cheers Wakefield founded the Wakefield Oil Company back in 1899, a company that would eventually become the famous Castrol brand. The name is derived from the oil company’s use of castor oil, a vegetable oil that is produced when castor beans are pressed. The oil has distinctive odour and is a pale yellow in colour. When researchers in the Wakefield Oil Company’s labs started adding castor oil to the lubrication formulas they were developing, the brand that we know today came into being.
In 1966, the oil manufacturing firm was purchased by another lubricant maker, Burmah Oil, and took on the new name of Burmah-Castrol. Many years later, in the year 2000, London multinational British Petroleum bought Burmah Castrol, but the brand Castrol has been retained on a wide range of lubrication products still widely relied on across the globe.
A lasting relationship with motorsport
The Castrol brand has a long association with motorsports, and it has worked with an astonishing array of different automobile manufacturers over the years, aiding them in their attempts to achieve racing victories.
It has famously supplied many successful teams operating on the elite Formula 1 circuit throughout the years, including McLaren, Williams, Team Lotus, Brabham, Jaguar, Renault and Walter Wolf Racing.
In addition, it has sponsored M-Sport and the Ford World Rally teams in their endeavours in the World Rally Championship, as well as the Ford GT Factory Team for Chip Ganassi Racing. Volkswagen’s attempts to win both the Dakar Rally and the World Rally Championship have also been backed by Castrol lubricants. The Audi Sport team’s efforts in touring and rally racing have too relied on Castrol, as has its programme entitled Le Mans Prototypes. Castrol has also sponsored BMW, Toyota and Hyundai’s motorsport teams.
The GTX engine oil
Extreme driving conditions can result in a tar-like material building up, known commonly as sludge. Deposits of sludge can effectively block an engine’s crucial oilways, in a similar way to how cholesterol can negatively affect human bodies. Left unattended to, it can steal an engine’s power, with the worst result being the end of its life.
The double-action formula of Castrol GTX is far more than simply an oil, as it has high-spec liquid engineering designed to provide everyday engine protection against a wide range of problems, including sludge build-up. It works efficiently to clean away any build-up, and it safeguards components against any new formation of sludge. It performs this function in a greater capacity than the demands required by rigorous industry standards, providing 50 percent better protection levels.
Castrol GTX is now among the world’s most respected engine oils, and it has been known for assisting with engine life extension since it was first developed in 1968.
