Little Miss WRX

I would personally rather hear an independant evaluation of the fuel, not a promotional answer from Shell as Optimax caused detting problems in my old silver MY94 WRX, I also know of others who have problems with the fuel.

scooby-new

On a recent trip through Germany I filled up with Optimax- it was dispensed from a red pump! Said 99 Octane (regular super was 98) and was cheap. It was a lot better than the Sul I normally use in France. Anyone know where the extra Octane came from or do the Germans have better fuel than us?

pcdude

yip what an answer ,,,, lmao ,,true Politician style ,,,,,,,,,,, do yo ureally think a company that sells this stuff is gunna say something to damage its multi million pound investment ? i think not

agree with miss wrx ,,,,,,, get a Independent company to analyze the stuff .

ed_the_duck

germans all got cars doin 190mph+ on thier autobhans, think they might need 99 ron lol........

2. Optimax is a completely new formulated fuel, the increased octane comes from refinery components and not octane boosting additives.


still doesnt say what ron it is!!
says 'increased octane'...........increased from what!!? 95ron? 97ron? or 98ron?
must say though......since owning my uk my00 i've always used optimax all but 3 or 4 times when i had to put in a tenner of somthing else to get by. I did have to have the ecu reset about three times cos it was running like a tractor, then i used shell normal unleaded and it went ok, changed back to optimax after two tanks and immiediatly felt the difference, 0-60 was much better. about 5.7 secs on optimax as opposed to 6.4 secs (at best) on other fuels...... what i do now if it gets a little lazy is, turn off the engine then restart and give an almighty hammering in all gears for about a mile, repeat this 3-4 time in a row and bingo, im gettin 5.7secs on 0-60's again. I have noticed over the time of using optimax that when the tank gets low (usually about halfway between quarter and empty) the car starts to get lazy again. not sure if this is because the fuel looses its kick from having more space to vapouise in the tank, or that the fuel pump is feeding less well on a low tank! I tend to run the tank to almost empty before refilling, maybe keeping it above a quarter may help. I also tend to use the same pump at the same garage now.
I used to run one and know what can happen (unleaded going down the wrong shutes) only a mistake......tanker drivers get up to no good too, like they used to have say 6600 ltrs of super plus when we ordered 6200 ltrs and you'd bung 'em a tenner for the extra but what it was topped up with....will im not a scientist! (i know cos i used to do the electonic ordering of fuel and dip the tankers befor and after deliveries)...not sure how its done these days..all i can say is if you feel you have got bad fuel is stop using that garage, (usually cos if there is something dodgy being done it is the same garage offending) and report it to the oil company.

pcdude

ed have you had the well known ECU prob on MY00,s only,,, sorted by the dealer ?

mines going in soon ,,, i even called IM and they confirm the ecu on MY00,s is not set up to produce the best performance for the car ,

it appears subaru got alittle carried away with emissions requirements .

milkytadpole

FYI, Optimax is marketed as at least 98RON in the UK (not so in all other markets) it's also slightly denser than most other fuels on the market (hence the apparent fuel economy benefit). Hope this helps. J

bluto22b

1976 then

I think you are referring to a Escort Mk III RS1600i of 1983/4 vintage, yes ?

Blutes

chrisp

QUOTE FROM THE SHELL.CO.UK WEBSITE

Note the word greater

http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?...ml&FC4=&FC5=#7

wally

To Johnfelstead : I know that I'm not the poor relation here, but it looks so much better to use Optimax then regular 98Oct Fuel.
There's a lot of discussion about wich fuel is the best and wich not but one thing is pretty sure : I use always the fuel with the greatest rating of Oct., in other words : when I use 95ron on my car, it's not driving the same as with 98ron and even when I'm in Germany I can feel some difference in drivability compared with Optimax...

Ian2wdsaffcos

One thing that puzzles me is how can Shell make this super duper petrol, manufactured to to a higher octane & then detergents added in & yet they manage to sell it for only a few pence more than their ordinary UL & MUCH cheaper than other SUL's???

jods

I like the idea of boosting anything so was caught by the idea of boosting Octane.

4 Questions though !

1. What brand
2. How much
3. Where from
4. What difference will it make ?



MY99 turbo

ROLIWRX

I think there maybe a little confusion on here as to what petrol(mogas)of any RON value is and how it is made. I'll try and clarify. We all know that mogas(motor gasoline) comes from the distillation(by one means or another)of crude oil. However mogas is not a single fraction of that distilled crude oil. Mogas is actually a blend of several fractions of a crude oil distillation and therefore is a blend. Now these number of different fractions all have different properties some may have a high octane value but also be high in aromatics(Benzene etc) others maybe lower in octane value but have no or very little aromatic or sulphur content. At the end of the day petrol be it 95RON,97RON or Optimax is a blend of several of these fractions/components. It is the skillful blending of these components that gives the different RON values not additives,octane boosters or anything else. Mogas is made in batches and each grade of mogas is specifically blended to a Minimum specification before it is released onto the market. Hope this helps some.

Little Miss WRX

I would still not be happy unless there is a full independant investigation by a company not associated (obviously) with Shell or any other fuel/oil company!!!!).

I understand a lot of the waffle that is being quoted and it is going to take a hell of a lot to convince me that Shell have cracked it with a cheaper yet higher RON version of SUL.

chrisp

Little Miss WR 4X I thought you would be running the 22 on some cold aussie lager by now .

SCOSaltire

id like to know where the optimax is made for peeps in scotland.
coz AFAIK grangemouth is a BP refinery...
and its refining components and not additives.. then surely shell must be producing it at their own refineries and not BPs coz then BP would have the technology...?

Mister2

"Shell Optimax is manufactured exclusively at the Shell refinery at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire
Shell Optimax is available nationwide at more than 90% of Shell service stations."

From the Shell website:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y14832E73

SCOSaltire

well found :d

looks like refining then.... ?
Loop hole?

CharlieWhiskey

Is it just me or does this all sound like producing Single Malts and then mixing them up with cheap grain stuff to make Scotch?

Or have I just been on too many distillery tours? Hic!

Z_chromozone in london

"I understand a lot of the waffle that is being quoted and it is going to take a hell of a lot to convince me that Shell have cracked it with a cheaper yet higher RON version of SUL"

The costs of the different fractions used in a blend of petrol are not determined by their blending octane numbers. Obviously I don't know what fractions are used in Octimax, but it is possible to produce a higher octane fuel for less money than a lower one.

I have a feeling that higher octane fuels are taxed more, due to higher unburnt hydrocarbon emissions. This may account for the percieved cost of SUL etc. If shell can sell enough of the stuff then i would expect the cost will come down.

Z

DJB

No

I understand that the taxation on fuel depends on its sulphur content (now invariably "ultra-low" in all unleaded fuels) and the aromatics content (which as you see above is linked to RON value). I think that Shell has somehow managed to obtain a mix which has a lowish aromatic content so attracts a lower tax burden - thats why its cheap.

D.

WREXY

We have two Optimax fuels here in Greece by the name of V Power. Same Ferrari advertising like the UK. Same logos, etc. Just a different name. One is not adsvertised on the pumps as to what the RON rating is and the other is advertised as V Power racing 99+. The 99+ fuel costs around 35 euro cents per litre more than SUL98 does.

Cheers,

Wrexy.





[Edited by WREXY - 2/24/2003 12:20:55 AM]

bigsinky

@pigster

nah m8 this is my regular garage. each one has 1 SUL pump only and it clearly states 97 RON on the pump. there is also a BP garage at ballyhackamore (beside qwikfit) that sells SUL 97 RON, again 1 pump only. its got to the stage now where just incase i get caught short i carry 2 - 3 bottles of black Nitrous Formula in the boot. like i said b4 second clas citizens in Northern Ireland even though we are still supposed to be part of the UK(but thats for another thread)

cheers

big sinky

redwrx

I have a friend who works at the Oil refinery, at Stanlow, Ellesmere Port, ...im assured that Optimax is 98RON. thats all i use in mine now. Mines a MY93wrx and it definately runs better with it rather than on NUL.

john_s

iTrader: (1)

My 02 wrx runs noticeably much better on omptimax than nul.

John

john banks

When I map my car to the edge of detonation and add a usable safety margin so that it never dets in road usage on Optimax, if I put SUL in the car dets lightly.

I kept gaining power during testing up to a full bottle of NF per tank of Optimax. The NF allowed 6 degrees further ignition timing from the base map that was just safe with Optimax. The results were impressive.

If I want good fuel, Optimax and lots of NF is my choice.

I have not tested SUL mapped optimally, but given the amount of ignition I pull out, and the massive gains I get from adding it, I'm not going back to SUL, despite the fact that I could only ever easily get it in this area from Shell who have now replaced it with Optimax.

Paul_M

bloody hell thats quite a hike in price for a few octane. optimax is generally 5p/litre more than normal stuff, and super is usually 10p/litre more.

Strangely though my local BP is the only place that I can get SUL (no shell near me for Optimax) and since the prices have started creeping up the SUL hasn't changed. So normal stuff has went from 71.9 to 78.9 but the super is still 81.9, now only 3p/litre more! This rise in price of NUL causing the price gap to decrease would make me feel good if it wasn't for the fact that my other car runs on NUL and that I reckon the price for SUL is just suffering a delayed reaction before shooting back up to the 10p/litre premium over NUL