Alex Hornoff

Motul’s oil doctor by day, historic house renovator by night

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THIS YEAR, again, we took our mobile lab to Silverstone Classic and the Goodwood Revival to offer our oil analysis service for free to competitors and invited car club members. It’s in an old Renault school bus restored in the Motul livery. It reminds people that Motul has a great heritage. It’s one of the oldest oil brands in the world, registered in 1853.

When owners come to see me it’s like visiting the doctor. And if you go to the doctor because youre not feeling good, you often have to give a blood sample. In our case, of course, it’s an oil sample, and instead of revealing the condition of your liver, here we can discover the state of your engine without having to open it up!

The best time to take the sample is after the car’s been driven while the oil is hot so we provide owners with a syringe and a 30ml container. I give this to the lab technicians at the event, Severine or Nicolas, and they come up with the analysis. And then, as technical support manager, it’s my job to explain the results to the car owners.

At Silverstone Classic we had 67 tests, 27 of which gave not such good news. So I had to explain that something was not optimum. It makes for long days but I don’t find it tiring because it’s important that owners get the right explanation. If I do well with this, maybe they’ll quit old habits, improve maintenance and prevent damage across the season.