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Premium fuels TESTED!


LoneWolf

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I thought this video would be interesting for any of you that uses premium fuels available in petrol stations.

Enjoy :)

 

 

 

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Really interesting video.

 

Personal experiences via "butt dyno" do back it up, too. Prior to trying Tesco's 99, Shell V Power definitely felt the best of the high octane options. While BP Ultimate has varied between meh, it's not great, to me being convinced one station I filled up at in Europe had the wrong octane fuel in their tank on that pump, now I'm thinking it was just Ultimate being Ultimate!

 

Filling with the Tesco Momentum was interesting though. And the graphs would explain the experience - it's not that it felt "way more powerful", it wouldn't, you can see in their tests, there was only around 1hp difference at the maximum BHP point. BUT, look hoe much extra under the curve there was, lower down, with the Tesco Momentum. - That's what I was feeling as a much more eager engine, with more pull.

 

Though, without active knock on my ecu, and the ability to pull timing, it is making me ponder the best approach for the Euro road trips. I do have the ability to switch maps on the fly, though. So I'm wondering if it's worth getting a "safe" map done, for days when Euro V Power is just not available.

 

Note:

 

Two points. 1. their tests above I suspect are all based on the older V Power, but I may be wrong. (Shell are rolling out a new formula at the moment in the UK).

2. I don't know which countries it's available in, but certainly I think all the Euro countries we crossed last year, Netherlands, Germany, Austria etc, had V Power Racing 100, a different formulation to "our" UK V Power with "minimum 100 RON", and oh my word, you felt the difference, just like you do with Tesco Momentum. Again, it'll be an area under the curve thing, not an out and out maximums thing.

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25 minutes ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman said:

Though, without active knock on my ecu, and the ability to pull timing, it is making me ponder the best approach for the Euro road trips. I do have the ability to switch maps on the fly, though. So I'm wondering if it's worth getting a "safe" map done, for days when Euro V Power is just not available.

I would personally do this, and I'll surely do it when I'll have mine tuned. Here where I live finding premium fuels is very difficult.

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I’d expected a bigger difference on a Highly turbo charged car between 95 and 99. 

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Me too, but then from the way he was talking, it didn’t sound like the 95 map was a particularly safe map, with lots of potential issues when initially going on boost.

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Agreed, but just going by his explanation of what needed doing to the shape of the graph, advance wise, where boost was coming in. It’s somewhat trickier than just comparing to our type ecu’s, because the car being used had active knock control pulling timing during the tests.

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One thing I've noticed when selling any high performance vehicle is I'm normally asked what fuel I use.

 

When I say "Shell V Power" (which I solely use as the Shell garage is only 1/2 mile from home) it seems to reassure people.

 

If I said Tesco's 99 I wonder what the response will be ... even if it is the better fuel?

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I was not even aware Tesco did a 99 octane fuel! My nearest one is too far away so I'll stick to my local

Shell station which I can literally walk to with Jerry cans in less than 100 seconds. May pick up some cans of Tesco fuel in the tin-top next time I'm passing but I'm not sure I'd notice the difference tbh, the car is so powerful anyway and I have selectable boost on the dash. I mainly use level 2 of 4 so more power isn't something I need day to day. I'm sure you boffins will tell me the other advantages of using a better rated fuel though? I'll have to watch the video later. 

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19 hours ago, Andy_R said:

One thing I've noticed when selling any high performance vehicle is I'm normally asked what fuel I use.

 

When I say "Shell V Power" (which I solely use as the Shell garage is only 1/2 mile from home) it seems to reassure people.

 

If I said Tesco's 99 I wonder what the response will be ... even if it is the better fuel?

That's a fair point. There is a slight 'snob' element to using V-Power I suspect. It does definitely colour people's opinions when you tell them you use it. I plan to try Tesco this year and see if I notice any improvements, if so then I'm happy to switch, shame I don't have a really close Tesco fuel station. 

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I see the video was by Officially Gassed. I've watched a few of his videos, they are often quite mental but the scariest thing I've seen in ages was him in the passenger seat of a Hayabusa Turbo Reliant Robin 😂 I'm not sure about rules on here yet as I'm new so won't post a link unless someone says ok, but you can find it dead easy on YouTube  - trust me you will absolutely love it! 

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I always put premium fuel in my car, it's stock zetec on Weber's, it's very hard to tell any difference, but as I don't do huge mileages the cost issue is not important. What's thoughts on this?

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21 minutes ago, Tim Baxter said:

I always put premium fuel in my car, it's stock zetec on Weber's, it's very hard to tell any difference, but as I don't do huge mileages the cost issue is not important. What's thoughts on this?

Sensible choice as the E5 of the Super will be less damaging to your rubber fuel system parts and will sit more happily in the tank without absorbing as much water.

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I’ve been using ESSO Supreme 99 on the understanding that it does not contain ethanol in my area, to try to avoid damage to seals and absorption of water if stored for any period. Hopefully this is correct, if it is actually 5% then I will perhaps chose differently but the published info suggests it is 0% ethanol in Dorset and Somerset where I fill up.

 

https://www.esso.co.uk/en-gb/fuels

33872691-EBA7-48C2-8DC2-B45606A69290.jpeg

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@fatblokestu I fill mine with Esso 99 for winter lay up because its ethanol free. But that website just said that it was everywhere but Scotland 6 months or so ago. So I'm guessing it will creep to 5% everywhere in time. 

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