There is an interesting assertion in there: "because when combined with sulfur it made an excellent lubricant," Almost anything is a good lubricant when you a

There is an interesting assertion in there: "because when combined with sulfur it made an excellent lubricant," Almost anything is a good lubricant when you add sulfur. The reason why sulfur isn't added anymore is environmental reasons. Newer diesel fuel isn't as good of a lubricant as the old fuel was because highway diesel has to be low sulfur now. So if sperm oil was only a good lubricant when mixed with sulfur, then it's a pretty average lubricant. Also the article says 5500 transmissions "failed prematurely" 1973-1975. In the US, 5550 transmissions might as well be zero. Even in 1975, most cars were already being sold with automatic transmissions. This whole thing sounds like GM was using sperm oil because it was available and known to work. Then the ban comes in & GM made some poor decisions, then blamed the whole thing on "conservationists". If only whalers had managed to hunt all whales to extinction in the 19th century GM could have been saved the total embarassment of selling junk cars.