Automotive

Pitstop Automotives on Sydney’s North Shore is well credentialed to speak about the performance of Anglomoil products with over two decades of experience servicing all makes and models of cars, as well as competing in drag racing and circuit racing in cars they have built themselves.

Frank Ciampi served his automotive technician apprenticeship at Mazda and went on to work at the famous Frank Crott Motors which specialised in European marques. He then started his own workshop in 1991 and began using Anglomoil products from day one. Today, with son Robert in charge, the shelves are lined with various Anglomoil products such as engine oil, gear oil, differential oil, engine flush, injector cleaner and degreaser.

The star of the workshop is Robert’s metallic green Mazda RX7 Series 3 turbo charged drag car,

“When I bought the car I pulled the engine apart, bridge ported it, rebuilt it, moved the water to air intercooler, installed a new engine management system and a modified Hilux differential. It has a Borg Warner turbo charger, a straight four speed
Jericho gearbox with a vertical gate shifter and twin plate clutch. I let go of the clutch at 8500-9000 revs per minute on the start line.”

The engine bay is dominated by the shiny plumbing belonging to the massive turbo charger.

“The car puts out about 600 brake horse power depending on the amount of boost we run and at Western Sydney International Dragway we have run 9.8 seconds at more than 235 kilometres per hour. The car runs exclusively on Anglomoil products. I use Anglomoil Super60 API in the engine and Anglomoil Syn EP 75W90 in the gearbox and diff’”, adds Robert who studied mechatronics at university.

The drag car has virtually the same output as a V8Supercar. This is Robert’s second quick rotary. The first one which he built whilst still a teenager is a Mazda RX7 Series 2 for circuit racing,

“I built that car at nights and weekends. It had a 12A rotary which I modified a lot. Then I put a 13B mild port into it with extractors and big exhaust. That engine runs on Anglomoil Formula60. The oil is a bit thicker which works really well for the amount of boost I run, and I clearance the engine accordingly.”

Robert’s exploits have attracted so much attention that he now devotes Monday to Thursday for regular customers and Friday is Motor Racing Day when all attention is focused on high performance race cars serviced by Pitstop Automotives. During this interview Robert was adding a turbo charger and fuel system to a two year old Mazda RX8 for an owner who goes to track days at circuits like Wakefield Park.

“With Anglomoil the same oil I use in my Japanese and Australian customer cars during the week I can also use in the race cars. There’s no need to have lots of different blends all over the workshop.”

Robert says they once used a couple of other brands of engine oil in the past but that came to an end because, unlike Anglomoil, they weren’t able to use one blend across the different types of cars,

“The rep would come out and say we’ve got this new product which is ideal for this type of car and when that car came in to the workshop and I checked their lube guide I found it was different to what I had been told. I rang them up and was told that to cover the warranty I would need another product instead. So, I’d order a 20 litre drum of that product and over time as this was repeated again and again with other products I ended up with all these different partly used 20 litre drums. I wasn’t using them up. I had all this money just sitting there being wasted. Then I started having issues with oil consumption in my customer cars. I made the change to Anglomoil and I haven’t looked back.”

Robert is very impressed with how well Anglomoil lubricants protect the hardest working, highest-friction parts of race engines,

“We strip down Mazda rotaries and Mitsubishi Evolution Lancer engines after they’ve spent about 10,000 kilometres competing on tracing circuits. I’ve just done an engine rebuild where we were able to re-use the same bearings despite having more than 10,000 k’s on them. When we last tested the RX7 drag car on the dyno’ we found that due to the Anglomoil Super60 the coolant temperature dropped five and a half degrees Celsius. When you’re running at more than 9000 RPM that is a big difference. The oil is that good!”

“Anglomoil oils definitely run a lot cleaner”, adds Robert, “When you drain the oil it’s not carbonising like the other brands. The oil is doing its job and coming out stable. And, as for my normal customers the oil isn’t clogging up and or being compromised by stop-start driving.”

Robert says there are other reasons why he prefers Anglomoil products which are not related to engine performance,

“Anglomoil products aren’t as expensive as the other blends which means I can pass the savings on to my customers – both the motor racing ones and the general day to day city drivers. Also, with Anglomoil I know I’m not just a number. I get really good, efficient personalised service. I remember one oil company came to us after we’d been using their product for a while and said we were too small to look after. I’ve had the team from Anglomoil come to my workshop and my distributor is always available to help me. I feel like I’m part of a big family and I really like the fact that a local Australian company is doing such an excellent job at manufacturing world-class products for automotive workshops.”