High Performance Fuels

A place for Polls / Surveys

Moderator: neil

Top stuff or great Gimic ?

Shell optimax rocks
17
59%
BP Ultimate rocks
3
10%
It's all a con save your money
4
14%
Super Unleaded in general is a waste of time
0
No votes
don't know
5
17%
 
Total votes: 29

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Charles
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High Performance Fuels

Post by Charles » Wed Dec 03, 2003 9:22 pm

Shell Optimax and BP Ultimate Unleaded

In your experience, do either of these fuels provide significant improvements to performance and/or economy (as claimed by the manufacturers) to justify the extra 5p per litre that they are sold for?



ps I would have set up a poll on this one, but it is late and I am confused and anyway Neil is the King of this website and he knows how to do these things....
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Post by neil » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:58 am

Funny you should raise this Charles - I am currently doing an experiment - I keep my running costs pretty religously - I love stats (I guess this site is evidence of that) but up till now have not really been noting the brand of fuel I use at each fuel stop.

I am now noting this and will report back.

The M5 is interesting as it doesn't actually stipulate a need for Super Unleaded and I have been mixing it up a bit. The last 2 fills have been optimax.

I tended to use Optimax in the B10 and as a rule used Shell, Texeco, BP in order of preference. But to be honest didn't notice any wildly different results - and if there were differences it was generally down to the way I was driving (the first few days after I got the M5 I think the onboard computer's best estimate was 11mpg :roll: ) Whereas now it is consistantly returning 20.3 - 20.6.

The BP fuel is making big claims so it will be interesting if anybody notices a real difference.

Performance wise I have never noticed a difference using Optimax. I was always using it with the 'good for the engine' or 'the car is a coinisour it should drink the best wine'

Interesting thread

Oh and I added the poll for you !! :P

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I'm an Optimax Man

Post by msw » Thu Dec 04, 2003 7:35 pm

For these reasons...

1. If think it's probably doing the engine better than 'ordinary' fuels.
2. The PlusPoints come in handy.
3. There may be a slight performance improvement

On the odd occasion I've had to fill up with non-Optimax I've never really noticed any difference in performance. I'm sure it helps, but I've not noticed it. I've never used supermarkets (that probably makes me a fuel snob!)

The new BP fuel is being pushed quite a bit on the radio, so I may try a tank of that, but I'm sure I'll go back to Shell if the BP points are no good!

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Post by dellboy 1959 » Sun May 27, 2012 7:10 pm

I posted don't know because there wasn't an option for supermarket super.
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Post by joylove » Sun May 27, 2012 7:28 pm

I use Esso 97 RON. MPG goes up, car feels perkier, car doesn't "chug/bunnyhop" at 1000RPM powered coasting in traffic. Not voted cos there isn't a 97RON option.
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Post by dellboy 1959 » Sun May 27, 2012 7:45 pm

I think the Tesco stuff is also 97 Ron but as other people have said,whether it makes a difference or not is hard to tell as i only do small mileage in the Alp.
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Post by Chas » Sun May 27, 2012 9:10 pm

I use Ultimate or Optimax but once had to use £20 of normal unleaded when the other pumps were dry. I can't say I noticed a material difference so I'm in the don't know camp.
I know the oil companies are robbing barstewards (along with the govt, of course) and I trust them in equal measure.

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Post by ali » Sun May 27, 2012 10:45 pm

I have only used V-power in the B3 but in my old 330i and M3 I tried both V power and regular and noticed there is only a performance gain to be had at the higher end of the rev range. Acceleration feels crisper and the engine feels slightly more alive. It's hard to describe but there is definetly a positive difference in my mind.. My E30 doesn't seem to notice the difference then again it really ought to have a remap before it is running as I'd like it to.
I avoid supermarket fuels purely because of the additives that are put in them. Up here in Edinburgh all the petrol stations are fueled from the Grangemouth refinery. It's once the fuel is in the tankers that additives are added to make each brand unique. The V power as internet research suggests does seem to carry some additives that keeps the engines cleaner and running smoother for longer. This is not the case with the supermarket fuels.
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Post by mr dalive » Sun May 27, 2012 11:42 pm

joylove wrote:I use Esso 97 RON. MPG goes up, car feels perkier, car doesn't "chug/bunnyhop" at 1000RPM powered coasting in traffic. Not voted cos there isn't a 97RON option.
While i lived in London i always used V-power in the B3 & since moving to Warwickshire the lack of local Shell garages has forced me to start using Esso 97ron & have seen the same results as joylove
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Post by Charles » Sun May 27, 2012 11:43 pm

You'll find that V-Power is transported from Shell and not from Grangemouth "with extra additives" - unlike pretty much every other fuel.

Something to do with the shorter chain molecules they use in V-Power and not wanting to contaminate the fuel with the standard stuff.
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Post by ali » Tue May 29, 2012 1:30 am

Charles wrote:You'll find that V-Power is transported from Shell and not from Grangemouth.
Ah I didn't know that Any idea where the V-Power would come from then ?
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Post by Charles » Tue May 29, 2012 11:52 pm

ali-bumble wrote:
Charles wrote:You'll find that V-Power is transported from Shell and not from Grangemouth.
Ah I didn't know that Any idea where the V-Power would come from then ?
Stanlow Refinery, I believe.

Given the different nature of the fuel, they ship exclusively in tankers that carry V-Power and use dedicated compartments to prevent contamination.

One of the reasons why, after the recent run on fuel, V-Power was slow to be replenished because they prioritised 95 RON fuel and the drivers were reallocated for these deliveries.
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Post by KennyJunior2 » Sun Jul 29, 2012 3:33 am

Since i've been driving the D3 saloon on V-power diesel the average mpg monitor has gone up by 2mpg from when I bought it, that's over 4 months and nearly 5000 miles. Being in the shell drivers club you get money off fuel vouchers, possibly doesn't warrant the cost? But every cloud.

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Post by rincewind » Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:49 am

I think Autocar (or one of the big motoring mags) recently did a very large survey on this, and found no noticeable difference. In fact, in the case of one 'super fuel' it was worse.

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Post by flyboyben » Fri Sep 14, 2012 1:13 pm

I'm afraid I use plain old boggo 95ron. Only Shell mind, not the watered down supermarket p1sh! :?

95 is what it says it needs on the fuel filler cap. I am happy with the performance of the B3BT and the fuel economy (average 29mpg). I don't do a particularly high mileage, approx 8k p.a., so don't expect any possible saving in fuel efficiency offered by 98ron to pay back the additional 5pence/litre. I've not bothered to do the calcs to check so I'm happy to be told otherwise.
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