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I seem to remember that Century Oils (usually found only in "trade" motor factors) was the same colour as Duckhams; has that disappeared from sale too?
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Ah - memories - I ran my 850 Gp1 mini on "R" for a while. Too expensive, though - even for limited competition, ( and you ha d to flush out all the mineral oil first), so I went back to Duckham's Q20/50
I ran my Cooper 970S on Duckham's too for some club racing. In fact I met my better half at Snetterton! (40 yrs. anniversary - Ruby- I think, next year!)
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What are you all going on about? As I said above, Duchams oil is still made and is available in my local shop. You can buy the entire range here:
www.wilcodirect.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cP...4
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About 25 years ago our weekly delivery of oil, to the chain of motorist discount shops that I spent a brief spell with, was Duckhams, BP (Visco?) and our "own brand," were all delivered from the same place in a nice Alexander Duckhams van. Only apparent difference was price, but marketing made sure they each had their own customers.
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Duckhams QXR synthetic was still being advertised up to the mid-90s in Car and similar magazines, big double-page spreads, too.
Also on Castrol R -- it's still the oil of choice for 4-stroke classic race engines that have a lot of roller bearings in them, also for 2-stroke racers that use premix.
In premix it's horrible to work with, won't mix on cool days and separates out within 48 hours but racers reckon it gives unsurpassed last-ditch lubrication when you push the envelope. Extremely high film strength and extreme resistance to shear & scuff forces.
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But conversely, R used to smell horrible in strokers, really sickly I seem to remember.
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Century Oils and Silkoline Oils are now called Fuchs Oils.
If I was the marketing manager I would rebrand the product .
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It's nice to see that the oil still attracts such interest. If Alexander Duckham was alive today I'm sure he'd have invented something at the cutting edge. He was my great uncle and sponsored Bleriot's flight across the channel. His father and brother were great innovators too. I have some Duckham Dinky Toys, but as for the oil,everything runs its course.
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IIRC the green colour and smell of Duckhams Q was because it contained a large proportion of recycled oil.
Although Duckhams claimed in the 70's that the same Duckhams Q was used in Formula 1 cars, I very much doubt it. My memory of it was I associate it with engines that subsequently developed oil burning problems from valve stem wear and/or piston ring wear.
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You can still buy the full range of Duckhams products they never went away.
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Duckhams is just one of BP's brands, like Castrol and Veedol, although they're trying to sell the brand. BP have withdrawn all advertising for Duckhams and focus on Castrol.
I doubt it's any different to Castrol - it is simply a brand.
Edited by RT on 17/11/2012 at 16:49
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There was nothing innovative or cutting edge about Duckham's oil other than on the marketing side.
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Your so right Steve there are and were far better oils available.
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