You’re known by the company you keep, and Valvoline’s new NextGen recycled oil is hanging out with all the right people. And not just people who know a bit about oil, but racers who take oil and wring its neck under the toughest conditions imaginable.

Valvoline’s new NextGen website is the place to go to see who’s using NextGen. Up now are "tested on the track" testimonials from NHRA Top Fuel drag racer Tony Schumacher and NASCAR champ Carl Edwards. Between them they tell how NextGen oil stands up to 4-second quarter-miles in 8000-horsepower engines, and 500-mile races that tax an oil to the limits over hours, not seconds.

The NextGen website also tells how making new oil from recycled oil makes sense not only from a refining standpoint, but an environmental one, as well. Switching to NextGen recycled oil could reduce the need for oil by 1.6 billion quarts––enough oil to stack barrels from New York to Los Angeles––every year.

Bookmark the NextGen website and check back periodically to see who’s using NextGen now, and learn more about recycled oil, how it works, and what it can do for you and the environment.

Racing thrives on innovation because newer and better components, especially those that lead to increased performance, are vital to any team’s success. But racing is too costly to allow teams to test new components for the first time on the track. By the time you see the latest upgrade on a car, it’ already been tested thoroughly back in the shop.

Earlier this year Valvoline approached Roush Yates Engines about testing Valvoline NextGen recycled oil in its engines. In May, Roush Yates began evaluating NextGen using a five-step program designed to make sure the oil had what it takes to make it in racing before actually using it in a race.

This video outlines the steps, including the spintron, which tests the valvetrain; dyno runs on complete engines; the AVL, which simulates race-distance stresses on an engine; a complete teardown and inspection; and finally a single car running the oil in several races.

http://www.speedtv.com/video/nascar/nascar-race-hub-next-gen-oil-1128749587001

It’s funny how time changes the meaning of some words and phrases. For example, “made in Japan” used to be just another way to say cheap and tinny, but now it means high-tech and cutting edge. Now Valvoline is redefining the word “recycled,” which used to mean “used” but now, as exemplified by its new NextGen motor oil, means “new oil.” And, because of reduced impact on the environment, it can even be considered “better than new.”

Valvoline NextGen takes advantage of the fact that all motor oils start as base oils that don’t really wear out. In fact, used oil starts off better than crude for making new base oil. Compared to crude, used oil has fewer oil impurities and more high-quality lubricant molecules. Over 75 percent of used oil contains high-quality molecules that can be made into new base oil, versus only 15 percent high-quality oil molecules found in crude oil.

In motor oil, what do wear out are the additives that are blended into the base oil to make it suitable for use in engines. When additives wear they, they’re flushed out with the oil.

But the oil molecules in base oil remain high quality, and can be refined into new base oil. Oil recycling isn’t a new thing—recycled oil has been around for a long time—but the way Valvoline does it is new, and that’s what’s redefining what recycled oil delivers. More...