PIERRE-CESAR BARONI’S SUCCESSFUL CAREER CHANGE
We know Pierre-César Baroni as the brilliant rally driver of the 80s and 90s. He launched into competition in 1973 behind the wheel of the unforgettable R8 Gordini and hung up his crash-helmet with a stellar second place in the Rally Antibes 2000. During that time, Pierre-César built up a stunning record of achievements behind the wheel of the most beautiful cars in rallying, and his crowning achievement would be as European Rally Champion in 1993 driving a Lancia Delta HF Integrale! His skilful driving, which made him fearsome in the high speed Specials, and his commitment in the technical field, would enable César, as his friends call him, to win 16 overall victories and a great number of podiums in his long career.
Always in search of new technical solutions and a perfectionist at heart, Pierre-César Baroni got involved at the beginning of 1993 in engine lubricants in collaboration with a chemical engineer of great renown. The innovation they came up with received, during 1988 and 1989, a great many awards in the innovation exhibitions and the prestigious Concours Lepine.
On the strength of that, Pierre-César Baroni decided to commercialise it and founded the Riviera Racing company. He offered it to Speedy who distributed it through their network for 10 years with huge commercial success and 1.5 million vehicles treated with the product!
Still looking for technical perfection, Pierre-César Baroni and his entire technical team continued to develop the product whether it be in the reduction of fuel consumption, exhaust emissions or engine wear. He now distributes his new generation lubricants under the name of EXEL MOTOR.
He ran more and more full scale tests certified by marshals on the road with drivers covering very long distances. Notably by Philippe Couesnon, the driver who beat the world record of non-stop long distance travel, 500,000 uninterrupted kilometres in one year. The result is without a doubt: approximately 10% less consumption and an especially remarkable drop in CO2 emissions!
At the same time, EXEL MOTOR developed a range of products dedicated to Heavy Goods Vehicles. With the current climate promoting research in fuel consumption savings and the reduction in CO2 emissions, they are interested in any means that will give them results. It’s worth noting that the fuel budget is currently nearly 30% of the total running costs of their operations.
Just as they did for the car, the technical team arranged many tests with HGV companies such as Pepsico Spain in Barcelona who, on the strength of the results, ‘lubricated’ their entire fleet of 1,200 vehicles, or the Deret Transporters and others. Recently, EXEL MOTOR ran a year long trial with the Trans-Energy transporters on their entire fleet, the result there too was definitive with a fuel saving of around 100,000 Euros and more than 216 tons of CO2 emission reduction, a saving of approximately 7.8% per year on their fuel budget.
The EXEL MOTOR range has also been developed in the arena of automotive competition with “performance” products.
We will give César Baroni the closing lines: “Since we created this product, we have put all our budget into its technical development, even though that was probably to the detriment of our communication. But we wanted an efficient product that gives concrete results, it’s our market brand. We ran many tests which helped our development get to the finished and efficient product we offer today. From now on, we want our product to be out there and I think that sport is a strategic communication tool which gives us much more credibility than the traditional channels. Our ambitious project is to be associated with a GT+ in EXEL MOTOR colours running in the French Rally Championship, it develops more than 420 hp and will be a real scoop on the French rallies, a nice sporting and marketing tool driven by a youngster!”
The engine in Pierre-César Baroni, is his passion. He is full of ideas for EXEL MOTOR and continues to drive his technicians and engineers to constantly improve his products, be they for the wheel or the competition.
