> To begin with, the only research I need is that the standard oils you can
> buy meet and exceed both the stated requirements
> listed in the VW owners manuals of ALL vanagons,the Bentley bible, The
> current VW factory, and VW dealers, today.
> So there's MY basic research to support not needing to pay extra for
> synthetics.
> There has been no revision from VW factory to switch vanagons over to
> synthetics.

Research #1 - all race cars and race engines run fully synthetic oils.
Research #2 - my 2001 NB TDI REQUIRES synthetic oil.

Obviously synthetics are better, period.  Reason #1 is all that I need to
be convinced that my Vanagon will benefit from it during my 850 mile trips
to Michigan driving at 75 mph.  I average just over 70 MPH which
translates to 12 hours of the engine spinning at over 4000 rpm.   Yeah,
I'd call that an endurance race and I'd say there's a need for increased
protection against viscosity breakdown.  For the rest of you, there's dino
oil.

Chris S.
'85 Wolfsburg Westy "Camel"
http://www.knology.net/~vw/dadada.jpg