Gaspari SuperDrive Came and Went with Serious Questions

Click Here to See our Full Product Description, Research, and Price Comparisons on Gaspari SuperDrive

This year at the 2013 Arnold Sports Festival, Gaspari Nutrition had their latest and greatest pre workout supplement, SuperDrive, on display.

We still think SuperPump 250 was one of the best pre workouts ever. But we have to say, we’re not sure what’s going on with this stuff.

Which Ingredient Label?

So far, we’ve seen two different SuperDrive ingredient labels – one that was on display at the Arnold, and one that is displayed on Gaspari’s official website.

The second is the “official” one, but is downright impossible and clearly mislabeled, while the other screams pixie dusting (or more mislabeling).

See them here:

From the Arnold:

The SuperDrive Ingredients from the Tubs at the Arnold

From the Official Gaspari Website:

This SuperDrive Label Leaked on a Forum and is Impossible Under FDA Law

In both of these labels, we are going to assume that the label is stated in descending order by predominance of weight. That is, after all, the law (21 CFR 101.4(a)).^[1]

What’s Wrong with the First One?

This first one might be for real, but if it is, then you have some serious pixie dusting going on here. Here’s why:

• We have a 535mg proprietary energy blend.
• There is 250mg caffeine per serving (more on that later)… and it’s the second ingredient.
• This means that NAT, the first ingredient, has at least 250mg. Let’s play it safe and just say it has 250mg.
• That leaves us with a whopping 35mg left for the other three ingredients, DMAE, higenamine, and citrus aurantium (bitter orange)! You need WAY higher doses to feel any of those… let alone all three!

So, if this is the official label, and it’s not mislabeled, then that’s just questionable pixie-dusting practices from a company that doesn’t typically do that.

What’s Wrong with the Second Label?

Update: It turns out that this is the official label on their site, but this labeling cannot possibly be correct. Here’s why:

• There are five ingredients in the blend
• The blend is 645mg
• Caffeine is stated to be 250mg per scoop, yet is the last ingredient listed.
• This means that every ingredient before it has at least 250mg. Play it safe and call them all 250mg. That’d mean, this blend would need to be at least 1250mg, which it’s not.

So, unless there was some new law of thermodynamics discovered over in Gaspari’s headquarters… this label must be wrong.

For now, let’s disregard label #2, especially since nobody’s seen it in real life.

Do We Really need Half a Freakin Gram of Caffeine in a Day?

SuperDrive

So let’s say the caffeine content on either of these labels is true. 250mg per scoop.

What we can’t get behind is how Gaspari lists the dosage amounts of taking two scoops, as if they’re “non-chalantly” allowing you to take 500mg of caffeine in one sitting!

When looking into caffeine’s side effects, the most interesting study is the one showing that intake at a level up to 6mg per kg of bodyweight is safe. Anything beyond that can get a bit hairy.

So, by those standards, 500mg caffeine in 2 scoops of SuperDrive divided by 6mg/kg = 83kg safety per day. Converting to AMERICA, * 2.2lb/kg = 182lbs. Anyone under that size shouldn’t be taking this much in an entire day, and definitely not in one sitting and then going and hitting a hard workout.

Have we gone too far? Is this really what the kids want? Do we really need this much caffeine? Or is this just a half-assed formula that doesn’t have much else?

When and where does this stop? Who’s first to have 500mg per scoop, and tell you to take 2 scoops in a day?

We know SuperPump MAX wasn’t “concentrated” enough for some people, and didn’t have enough caffeine. But the pendulum is swinging too far in the opposite direction. But either way, both of these labels seem wrong. Or, we at least hope they are.

What about the Other Ingredients?? Triacetin?

SuperDrive has a few other ingredients that honestly don’t have much research behind them – and definitely not for pre workout. You can see our Gaspari SuperDrive page to read the research. But the research is that… there’s not a lot of research on two of the main ingredients. That could mean just about anything.

One of them (triacetin) is used as a food and cosmetic additive, but the FDA approved it, and NASA checked it out in the 1960s to see if it could help with feeding during long flights. Interesting… but will it work in a pre workout? Is that for energy, or for pumps (it looks like a possible glycerin pre cursor)…?

Overall, we’re definitely willing to try this, especially to feel the triacetin, but at one heaping scoop max. If you need more than 300mg to get you going for a workout… it’s probably time for a good stim-break.

Anyway, for now, we await Team Gaspari’s response. We’ll keep these pages up to date, but you can also sign up for notifications below, and we’ll hit you up when we know more (or when the stores have it for sale).

Update: Here’s an incredibly informative teaser trailer!