Built by Racers, for Racers: The Story of VP Racing Oil
Nobody asks for an oil. They arrive with an engine — a flat-tappet cam, an aggressive valvetrain, more load through the bearings than a road car's oil was ever asked to carry — that a supermarket bottle was never built to protect.
VP had spent four decades answering that question about fuel. Oil was the obvious next one.
The Launch
VP unveiled its lubricants line at the PRI trade show in December 2016, bringing the same race-tested approach it had applied to fuel since 1975. Rather than put its name on an off-the-shelf formula, VP brought in Richard Glady, a 34-year veteran of the lubricant industry, as Sales Manager for Lubricants. The company also partnered with a specialist chemical and additive maker, using synthetic base stocks selected to VP's own requirements and strict specifications.
The reasoning was simple: lubricants were a natural fit with VP's core market. The people already pouring VP fuel into their tanks were building engines that street oils weren't designed to protect.
The Problem VP Set Out to Solve
As emissions standards tightened, mainstream motor oils cut back on the zinc and phosphorus that protect high-load parts. That was good news for catalytic converters and bad news for racers and classic car owners running flat-tappet cams and aggressive valvetrains. VP's answer was to put protection back in. The first formula paired high zinc and phosphorus for flat tappet and roller cams with multiple anti-wear chemistries and unique friction and viscosity modifiers. The goal went beyond protection. Those modifiers reduce friction both within the oil and between the oil and metal, raising horsepower while lowering operating temperature.
The Engineering Philosophy
VP designs its Pro Grade racing oils around three principles:
- Oil that clings: VP uses select base oils with polar characteristics, which improve the oil's ability to cling to metal components.
- Layered protection: A balance of multiple anti-wear chemistries goes beyond zinc alone, adhering to metal surfaces to form a protective layer.
- Unlocking power: Friction modifiers reduce both fluid-to-fluid friction and friction between oil and moving metal, helping unlock horsepower and torque.
On top of that, the oil is blended with an aggressive dispersant and detergent package to control deposits and oxidation. The heavyweight 15W-50 shows how far that goes: it's built on fully synthetic PAO Group IV base stocks for high-horsepower, high-rpm race engines and carries roughly 2,000 ppm of zinc.
A Line for Every Build
The initial launch covered Professional Grade oils in 0W-20, 5W-30, 10W-40, and 15W-50, plus Hi-Performance oils for small-block engines and the classic car market, including street rods, muscle cars, and vintage cars, in 10W-30, 10W-40, and 20W-50. For engine builders, VP added a break-in oil that combines conventional base stocks, ZDDP, and moly to help newly machined parts seat properly, along with an engine assembly lube and a GL-5 gear oil. On the powersports side, VP's 4T full-synthetic oils use ester-based synthetic base stock with an advanced additive package.
What VP Stands Behind
The Pro Grade line is aimed at people who race: professional, semi-pro and high-intensity amateur racers in on-track applications, dyno tested and track-proven, VP says. In European FIA Pro Stock, VP says three of the category's most decorated drivers run both — VP fuel and VP Pro Grade oil.
That's the case VP makes for the range: not an oil company that decided to sponsor racing, but a racing fuel company that spent decades inside the engines of champions, learned what those engines demand, and built oil to match.