PAST IMPERFECT: The little details are often what count, as Castrol learned with its charts and books
IN THE late 1960s and early 1970s the Castrol Oil Company occupied a very special place in the British motor industry and beyond. With a reputation built on record-breaking and a deep involvement in motor sport of all forms, it could justifiably claim to be the pre-eminent manufacturer of motor oils.
Many motorists and motorcyclists would accept nothing but Castrol in their machine - a belief built on the back of the company's motorsport success, which it continually advertised to the ordinary non-sporting motorist.
This advertising was very cleverly backed-up by a whole raft of publications including lubrication charts - no self-respecting motorist who claimed to look after his vehicle could be without one - Castrol Achievements Books and their famous Racing and Rallying Manuals of the period.
The lubrication charts were a brilliant marketing concept.
Motorists and motorcyclists were invited to write to their local Castrol office requesting a lubrication chart for their vehicle. Back would come a handsome fold-out chart which detailed the complete lubrication requirements for their car or motorcycle, including a fine set of drawings showing how the DIY enthusiast could carry out the work himself.
Usually the chart would be accompanied by a keyring or other small marketing give-away. No request went unanswered, and this personal contact with their customers often led to a lifetime devotion to Castrol products.
The Castrol Achievements Books were the icing on the cake. Every year from the early 1930s onwards Castrol produced a handsome, well-designed booklet on the achievements of sporting motorists and motorcyclists using their products.
Once again, these publications were distributed free and very quickly became collectors' items. Indeed, today there are many collectors who will pay vast sums for the rare early editions of these booklets which were originally free "giveaways".
The Achievements Books were attractively produced and their cover art was often commissioned from a well-known motoring artist which has only, with the passage of time, served to make them even more collectable. Michael Turner and Gordon Horner were among the prominent artists whose painting most often adorned the covers of the books.
Of course, other companies saw the success of the Achievements Books and tried to imitate it. Most notable amongst them were Shell, BP and Ferodo, but somehow their efforts lacked the cachet enjoyed by the Castrol publication.
Then in the early 1970s came the Castrol Rally, Racing and Motorcycle Manuals - hard covered books which sold in bookstores.
The Rally Manuals in particular quickly became a "must-have" addition to any rally enthusiast's library.
The sole Racing Manual, published in 1973, and edited by the inimitable Australian racing driver, Frank Gardner, today enjoys classic status, not least for the Australian's pithy comments about some of the cars he raced.
The original Porsche 917 was one of the cars to get the Gardner treatment: "You just wouldn't have believed at the time that they could have developed that car into the classic it became. . . in original form it was just impossible, and nipping corner markers was like a blind man chucking paper darts in a sandstorm."
Those really were the days.