I had mentioned metallurgy is better these days.

This does not apply to aftermarket parts, especially those made in China. Not just car parts, but everything.

Speaking of upper head lube, I recently sent some parts back to Calver to review as there was premature wear issues on a batch of new parts. After inspecting my valves and guides with less then 2000 miles on them, he suggested I run some lead or upper head lube in my fuel. I only use the highest grade fuel I can find (typically I fill up at Exxon) but he was worried somethings up with parts looking the way they did in so few miles.

Isnt Marvel Mystery a product for this? I have never run anything like this before.

Back 50 years ago it was popular. We would pour Redex or Firezone into the air intake whilst running  then go thrash it up the road. Term for this was a `Texas Tuneup'.

In this case there talking about a addative in the fuel trade name of one is REDEX used to be very popular in the 60's as the fuel was pretty crappy with lots of deposits

years ago people would pour "upper cyinder oil" into the air induction while the engine was running. This was done at end of season for boats and other seasonal machines to hopefully coat valves and valve guides, maybe. 

I still do that to my 2 cycle outboard at end of season using fogging oil. Fogging oil has a lot of wax in it to cling to parts. This may be especially helpful in protecting the reed plates from salt air corrosion, and the various needle bearings. 

Modern oils, especially synthetics, are said to not "slide off"  of parts when not in use,  so upper cylinder oils may be a thing of the past. Metallurgy is a lot better, too.

I was just at Advance Auto. Lots of gimmicky additives for whatever. Most are probably junk. Better to keep water and ethanol out of your fuel and crankcase

Fuel additive to lubricate the upper cylinder walls, rings etc.  Most oil companies have their 'special" additive, e.g. Chevron with Techron., that may be claimed to clean fuel injectors among other things.

The lubricant that is likely the most highly developed can be read about here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-1R

perhaps referring to the dashpot "cylinder" in the carb?

OK ... somebody please explain "upper cylinder lubricant" in that chart. What is an "upper cylinder" in a Mini? Last time I checked all cylinders in mine were in a row. If its for the rockers etc. in the head, won't it just leak down and mix with whateve you use from Column A?

The 1965 owners manual I was given this week shows an "interesting" list of approved straight weight and multivis motor oils for the 848cc engine.

it looks like just about anything would do, unless you lived in the frozen north, raced, or pulled a trailer uphill.

Of course, what was available in 1965? I used straight 20W or 30W in my first (American) car back then, and a later VW.

Some say "Duckhams 20-50 (invented for the Austin)"  was the first multivis, other say other oil companies invented 10-30 or 10-40 in the 1950s. Whatever the truth is, there were a lot of improvements in oils around the time when that 1965 owners manual was printed, and even more since then.