A series of cracking tests in a comprehensive study were conducted on separate occasions involving all or parts of 10 Canadian vacuum gas oil (VGO) feeds and a catalyst. VGOs were cracked in fixed- and fluid-bed microactivity test (MAT) units, the Advanced Cracking Evaluation (ACE) unit, and a modified ARCO riser reactor. Several important observations from this study were reported, including the effects of gasoline precursors on the maximum gasoline yields and aromatics in feeds on the conversion levels at which the maximum gasoline yields occurred. Yield profiles were found to be similar in shapes and relative positions between H2S-free dry gas and catalytic coke for all but one of the feeds. Conversion and yield data obtained from the three batch reactors were compared and discussed. At a given conversion, correlations existed among the fixed- and fluid-bed MAT units, and the ACE for each product yield. A method to check the qualities of MAT and riser data was demonstrated by plotting the coke or total gas selectivity versus the gasoline selectivity. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.