Excelling through Total Excellium: the race for better performance and efficiency

Published Jul 15, 2020

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When you’re a professional racing driver, you don’t just want to think you’re the best, you want to know it. Every competitor deserves an equal footing in a race, so that when you win, you know it was your skill that took you over the finish line first. It’s why Justin and Darren Oates, some of the most dynamic drivers on Total South Africa’s Total Excellium Racing team, use Total Excellium fuel to maximise the performance of their own vehicles. Total Excellium has also been used as the fuel of choice on the track by the Polo Cup series seeing as all vehicles are required to race with the same fuel. 

In motorsports, the health of your car is essentially the first step to winning the race. As a result, there is a great amount of time and resources dedicated to the maintenance of a car. 

“Before starting to use Total Excellium, my lap times were considerably slower than my teammates. We continually checked the data analysis software in the car and couldn’t find the problem. However, since the change to Total Excellium, I am performing the best I ever have. I have since become increasingly aware and dedicated to the care of my vehicle to ensure its ultimate performance,” said Darren.

As the duo have been steadily climbing the rankings since they burst onto the scene in 2015, they have recognised the importance of a well-maintained engine and how a top fuel can be the difference between a mediocre drive and a phenomenal one. “All the competitors deserve to be equal in a race. Fuel can make a big difference if it’s not consistent between all the drivers,” said Justin. 

Since they began using Total Excellium two years ago, the Oates brothers have noticed their car’s engines have remained in tip-top shape. But it’s not just about performance and speed. A cleaner engine lasts longer, and the science behind it became clear to Darren and Justin as they each earned their degrees in Mechanical Engineering. 

“While our race cars are serviced too regularly to see a build-up issue, we know that a regular car on the road isn’t the same. If your fuel doesn’t look after your engine as it should, you will get build-up, which will affect your fuel injectors. They won’t spray as effectively, you don’t get a uniform combustion stroke, which means you’re using more fuel and your engine performance goes down,” said Justin. 

“This can lead to damaging the engine, which can lead to vibration and other issues which mean the driver is less comfortable in a car that’s already losing performance,” said Darren

Years of development means Total Excellium will protect your engine

Total Excellium premium fuels were developed over two years by Total’s multi-disciplinary team of scientists who put in tens of thousands of hours of testing to create the formula that cleans engines kilometre after kilometre -  improving performance, sustainability, and fuel consumption. It’s an innovation that has been proven to prevent up to 93% of deposit build-up in engines. 

Prior to Total Excellium’s development, Total surveyed customers in several countries across the globe to ask what was most important to them and the answer was almost always the same: protecting the engine from damage. 

The damage caused by build-up was the reason Total developed Total Excellium fuel; because today’s compact, sophisticated engines are more susceptible to it than ever before. 

During fuel combustion, not all molecules are completely burned away, meaning some residue is left behind, forming deposits on essential engine components, making them less efficient. 

Beyond the higher fuel consumption and less engine power, this can also lead to higher CO2 emissions, meaning your vehicle will be less environmentally friendly. 

As part of the battle against deposit build-up, Total Excellium uses specific additives, including form of detergent that prevents clogging, anti-corrosion protection agents that fight against rust and other metal decay, and de-emulsifiers that protect the fuel in case of water exposure. 

To avoid this, using additive-enriched, premium fuel like Total Excellium has become key to maintaining a modern vehicle – as the Oates twins can attest. 

“We trust that Total Excellium is a good – no, a great fuel. We haven’t had any issues and our engines are still running smoothly, two years later. We haven’t had to re-do anything on our engines. No problems so far with any of our cars,” said Justin. 

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