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Enthusiast Essentials: have you heard about Shell’s Helix Ultra motor oil?

30 September, 2015

Shopping can be a monotonous chore, even when it comes to purchasing oil. Do you lean towards the trusted labels, or do you grab the cheapest available option and ignore the sob-ridden guilt as you add it to your engine? There are many different brands of oil out there, but Shell would like to have you believe that they’ve tapped into something special with their latest Shell Helix Ultra motor oil.

Containing Shell’s own PurePlus technology, the latest and most ultra form of Helix is a base oil produced from natural gas instead of crude oil. What this means for Joe Consumer at the other end is that when they turn the key, they’ll be enjoying an oil that provides better protection for their engine, enhances cleansing capabilities, and, somewhat subsequently, greater efficiency. Let us explain.

Dick Johnson, Penske Racing, and Ferrari are three of international motorsport’s most renowned entities — and all three share a common long-term connection with Shell. It’s these kinds of associations that let you know that Shell’s a company that means business when it comes to rolling out new technologies, often perfecting them in the realm of competitive motorsport before taking them to the streets. And the case for the new Shell Helix Ultra and its PurePlus technology is no different.

PurePlus technology utilizes a gas-to-liquid (GTL) process that Shell have developed and honed over the last 40 years. Through the process, natural gas is converted into a crystal-clear base oil, with none of the impurities that you’d find in any kind of crude oil. The base oil is one of the key ingredients of the final product, making this technological advance a bit of a coup for the Shell organization.

Among those who use Shell Helix Ultra is a man named Dave Salters. Like most, Dave has two arms, two legs, and two eyes — among many other features. But unlike most, Dave is the head of the Ferrari Formula 1 team’s engine department. Here’s what he has to say about the Shell’s PurePlus technology: “There has been a dedicated and successful development programme to develop a Formula 1 oil based on Shell PurePlus technology that has provided a good step in engine efficiency, whilst maintaining the protection necessary in this type of very highly loaded Formula 1 engine.

“With Shell’s development team we are working together very aggressively to develop and introduce new technologies in both the oil and fuel to improve the efficiency and fuel consumption of the power unit. The current regulation and engine architecture reward these types of efficiency gains that have been developed with this advanced oil technology.”

The forces that a Formula 1 engine is made to endure cannot be underestimated. Even with the race field downscaling to V6 power plants in recent years, those forces are still through the roof. Ferrari’s SF15-T unit for example produces more than 600hp, with its turbocharger rotating at 2000 revs per second, and subsequent temperatures operating at a balmy 1000C. New regulations pushing Formula 1 teams to restrict the amount of engines they churn through in a season to a mere four per driver only maximizes the need for products like Shell Helix Ultra.

So it raises the point: if it’s good enough for one of the most decorated teams in Formula 1, then it’s probably good enough for your piece parked in the garage. You can grab your bottle of Shell Helix Ultra from Z, Repco, Supercheap Auto, and Blackwoods Protector outlets nationwide.

For the full list of stockists, and more information on Shell, visit them online at shelllubricants.co.nz.

Chrysler’s classy cruiser

22 May, 2026

I first saw our feature car, a 1970 V8-powered Regal 770 hardtop, towing a trailer carrying the tidy Ford Anglia classic racing saloon in Broadspeed racing colours that has featured in these pages. The coupe is comparatively rare here, which means anyone contemplating purchasing one of these big two-doors is sure to see prices continue to climb. The latter Charger has claimed much of the Aussie Chrysler limelight, but the simpler and classier lines of this car, which appeared dated soon after its introduction, now have a more timeless appeal.
Former owner, Balclutha motor engineer, Mike Verdoner, remembers the car well. He believes it came from Dunedin originally.
“I’m not sure about the car’s history, but I bought it off its owner at Kaitangata. Unusually, it was advertised in the local newspaper, the Clutha Leader, which was a surprise as these usually go for a lot more money on the internet. I had it for quite a few years. It needed a little bit of work to tidy it up, so I had to decide whether to spend the money on it to do it up, which could have been twenty grand. Its value at the time was not like it is now, so I sold it to Ewan. It’s probably now worth three or four times what I sold it for.”

The Pininfarina 230 SL

14 May, 2026

It’s October 1964, and imagine you’re an automotive journalist covering that year’s Paris Auto Show (Mondial de l’Automobile). As you approach the Pininfarina booth, you come across a car that looks a bit like the Mercedes-Benz 230 SL introduced the previous year at the Geneva Auto Show, a car then arriving at Mercedes-Benz dealerships around the world.
But looking closely, its styling and proportions seem to be a bit different. And it has a fixed roof, unlike the Pagoda-style greenhouse of the removable hardtop seen on the production 230 SL. While today, the styling of the W113, under the supervision of Head of Styling Friedrich Geiger, with lead designers Paul Bracq and Bela Barenyi, is considered a mid-century modern masterpiece, acceptance in-period was not universal. Some critics called out the concave design of its removable roof, which ultimately gave the car its “Pagoda” nickname.