Royal Purple is definitely not better than M1, it is actually worse. If you want something better go to Amsoil, Redline, or Motul. Even Penzoil Plat is better than M1.

 

I used royal purple on my car and I did alot of events on road courses with PCA and NASA. My motor only lasted about a year before I spun a bearing. I started having higher metal levels in the oil and eventually you could feel the metal particles in the oil....felt like sand. I would changed my oil before and after every event and would never go over 2000 miles....the combination of driving at extemely high revs for extended periods of time and royal purple caused an early end to my motor. There are also of several 350Z's that have done many track events with me and there are still on the original motors. The only difference is they are using different brands of oil.

 

Yep, both my cars I have tracked have used Amsoil and never had a problem with them. I have gone several times and 6k on a oil change to the track with Amsoil and the car still came back with good UOAs. Royal Purple is known to have high wear counts when done on UOAs. It is a overhyped oil due to the Import scene. If you don't care about your car, run RP, if you do, run something better.

 

just a few things to take into consideration, as you could literally go crazy reading various threads, etc

First, every manufacturer has different blends. So, the 5w30 and the 20w50 (for example) may not perform the same, may have different levels of some additives vs others, etc. Then within a manufacturers line you have different series of oils as well - all may perform differently, can be formulated differently, etc. Nissan makes the Versa - does that mean all Nissan's suck? Absolutely not. Same sorta thing

Second, the "results" one gets on their engine are just that - THEIR results. They are not an indication of what YOUR results will be with that oil. Every engine is built to a given set of specs in terms of bearing clearances, etc. The specs in your engine have a direct correlation to the results that lab testing will show. This is apparant even on built engines, especially when various piston/rod combos are listed. This is why it's really, really hard to say what oil is better, or worse, unless you are testing it consistently on the same exact engine. Use the threads you see as a guide, not necessarily a bible, and understand that for all the good talk you see of particular brands, if you look, you'll find bad as well...it's just how it goes. When you build an engine, ask the person building it what they recommend you to use for a filter and oil. If you trust that person enough to build the engine, then trust their recommendations on the blood it needs to survive. I've never found you can go wrong this way. On my build, the RP XPR 20w50 was suggested with a WIX filter (my guy even gave me the part # of the filter) and that's what I run. This doesn't me it's what he suggests on every build, or even on every VQ build. But with my clearances, and piston/rod/bearing combo, and given how I use the car, it's what he suggested. I'm sure if I asked for other suggestions, he would be able to provide those to me as well..but that was the first one he suggested, it's readily available, so it's what I use. For those without built engines, stick to a name brand, change the oil per the manufacturers recommendations, and you'll be fine. If it makes you feel better to use something high end, then by all means. On the other hand if you are trying to save a few bucks (everyone is), and don't want to drop $10 or $15 a quart on something fancy, don't feel obligated to. It's likely to not buy you anymore reliability. I've had cars that have gone 150K-200K miles by using std off the shelf always-on-sale oils (anyone remember Wolfs Head )with even mediocre filters. To date, I have never once blown up an engine due to oil or filter selection - and I've had ALOT of cars.

Third, sometimes you just have to give into the fact that fate takes over at times, or just plain bad luck (or good luck). You can run the greatest oil in the world, with all the best additives, none of the 'bad' stuff, never redline your car, never speed, never rev over 2k when the engine is cold...and you can still start eating through rings and even blow the engine. Conversely, there are, I am sure (I know some!), guys who beat the snot out of their cars, don't pay much particular attention to the oil they run, and still have not run into bearing/ring issues. Sometimes it's just how these things go