Edcase

Paul - lmfao!! Well its the stupid circuits fault everywhere else is overtake on the left

Oh not to mention putting my helmet on back to front earlier in the day

Scooby-Monster

Needed petrol on way home and decided to pop into the BP near me eastbound on A13. Read that many of the SL pumps already had Ultimate in them so thought I would give it a whirl. Filled up at pump number 7 and went to pay and see if I could get any more info. I did.....

Pumps 8 and 9 apparantly had Ultimate in them.... I guess I will have to wait a bit longer!!! Has anyone else actually tried it yet?

Mad Gypsy

If it is only 98RON, then why make the change from Optimax?
Optimax is "Higher" than 98RON according to their website.
I don't get any knock on Optimax and don't see the point of BP introducing a lesser fuel to go head to head with a higher quality fuel.
If it is 100RON (which I doubt), I will never set foot in Shell ever again, but untill I see 100RON on BP forcourts I'll stay a Shell customer.
I think if everyone did the same (again, I doubt they will), perhaps BP would have to up the ante and bring us 100RON.

S.B.

Is everyone getting excited?

Richard Askew

Not really....

Think I'll stick to a 50/50 mix of optimax and Esso SUL with 300ml Silkolene Proboost...

RayC

Admitidly i have not read the whole thread as it was bouncing from one side to the next,

But

I cant see how BP would benifit from trialing the fuel, if you didnt know it was 100 ron or 98 ron would you bother to go back if you just thought your car felt better i doubt it, so i jsut dont see how they expected to get any feed back, unless it wrecked your fuel pump or engine! (sorry had to drop that in!)

Andy555

They are not trialling the fuel, they are spending 8m on advertising it as a new product. I am sure we will know tomorrow when the adverts hit us. Seems like they are keeping it a secret until its released.

elgordano

Internal BP press release today says that the new fuel is released today and TV ads will follow next week. No details about octane level of fuel but it does say it's a 'higher octane' but doesn't say higher than what.

Gordo

greasemonkey

Nobody knows exactly what its nominal octane rating is yet. For all we know it could be 98.9, which it is highly likely to be given that Opti is nominally 98.7.

Yes, yet more nebulous marketing. In practice it's impossible to know exactly what the rating of the petrol going into your tank is. The octane rating and calorific value of pump petrol starts to drop the moment it leaves the refinery due to evaporation, so in practice the more petrol a garage sells, the more often it'll be restocked, and the fresher the fuel is likely to be.

BTW, I see Shell have started a new TV advertising campaign for Optimax. Coincidence?

IDG

Apparently there's been some 'fuss' recently with pump fuel being below the stated octane (this can happen as it sits in the tanks venting off its 'bang' for weeks).

My point, well, BP could market it at 98 with some clever "it's just like Optimax" slant, knowing it's actually better than that.

Ian :-)

Mad Gypsy

Adam M

That makes more sense to me. I hope someone does some proper testing on both fuels asap so we can make an informed choice, rather than going by the BS on here.

greasemonkey

...but this contrasts directly with some stories emanating from Australia, where a fuel known as "Ultimate 98" has been available for some time. Apparently some batches have been found to be as low as 91 RON due to deterioration caused by evaporation!
Google on BP Ultimate and you'll get a few links to this.

Of course we don't know if the petrol they sell over there is the same formulation as what they're selling here, but either way at the moment there's just a big "fog of war" over the whole subject and the reality is that nobody really knows anything - bar the petrochemists who actually create and test the stuff.

Maybe he could contribute to the thread and explain himself?

Adam M

unlikely he would do that having been ousted fro scoobynet.

He still posts actively on 22b and has conversed on this subject on there already.

Have already linked to that thread in this one, and can't be bothered to start looking for it again.

Twigster Home

I think it could well be worth contacting the guys at G-Force, I know for a fact that they have been running tests for a major fuel company on the effects of different fuels, and am now wondering if this is to be the fruits of their labours (as well as BP's obvioulsy!!). Can Chris comment on this if he reads this thread....

AlanS

Today's prices

Nottingham, London Road Roundabout - Shell: Optimax 77.9p/Litre
Southwell, Notts - BP: SUL 82.9p/Litre

guess where I fill up 3 times a week...

Andy555

So whats the news 100 RON or 98 RON ?????

Fatman

Post to clear recordset error

Mad Gypsy

After confirming they were going to be selling this new fuel from early October some weeks ago, my local BP said this morning, they know nothing about it!
You would think it was a secret to rival who shot JFK! To be honest, with BP's stupid ? games, unless it's 100RON, they can stick their fuel right up their ar$e!

Andy555

Well said

Mad Gypsy

So much for the 'Launch' on the 7th

SPelham

Mad Gypsy, I had the same response from my local BP garage last night. He even seem to get quite stressed out when I mentioned that I new it was a new fuel but he just kept denying any knowledge of it !!

Mad Gypsy

What BP don't seem to understand is this; By trying to keep it such a secret, they are pi$$ing off a lot of potential new customers.
I can understand them wanting to keep it a secret from their competitors, but if we know about it I'd bet a pound to a pinch of st1t so do they.

If it is 98RON I think we should boycott this fuel in order to get this message accross to BP; Bring us 100RON or you can stick ultimate unleaded right up your exit hole!

Edcase

Mad Gypsy - as stated earlier in the thread, we represent a tiny percentage of fuel buyers and they really wouldn't give a toss if we boycott it or not. If its as good as or better than optimax, well at least I don't have to hunt for optimax all the time. If its 100 RON, then thats brilliant. I'm doing about 2000 miles in the next 5 days, so will be checking bp's on the way.

Andy555

Edcase, you should work for the Government

Edcase

Who says I don't already?





Anyway, I'm offski. I'm in Oxford, Warwick, Liverpool and Nottingham in the next few days so give me a wave if you see me! (Green bugeye, carbon wing, sounds like a motorbike )

Would be nice to be spotted at least once before my first 12 months of ownership comes up next month.

Andy555

Just spoke to someone at BP, they class it as 97 - 98 RON, it causes less polution, and will increase power ???, its in direct competition with Optimax, and the chap said it will be a better fuel and will not degrade like Optimax.

Its available in 100 garages in the South East today, and 400 by the week end. All BP Garages will be done by the end of January.

Fangoria

iTrader: (1)

Yes - must admit that if you fill up with Optimax and dont drive the car for over a week the knocklink has a Christmas!!! - this has happened several times - plus the Optimax quality seems variable

At least it increases the number of outlets for better fuel over 97ron........

Just hoped that it would have been 100 ron - cant see why BP are bothering to launch a product that for most people will not seem any different to Shells and for the more informed is still inferior as its not 98.6/98.7 which Shells is supposed to be

Guess I'll have to continue to use the full NF bottle with every fill up still.................. was hoping to cut the huge cost down!

scooby_si

fang by full bottle of NF is that one of those 1 shot jobbies or do u actually put a full £15, or wotever they cost now, bottle in?
Just wondered.....
Si (waiting till January when i get me previously 100RON fed jap car )

Andy555

Email I got from BP -

Further to our discussion on 07/10/03, here are some key facts about BP Ultimate:

BP Ultimate is a 97-98 RON Unleaded performance fuel that offers:

More performance for any vehicle that can take unleaded fuel
Up to 7.1% more power.
Up to 5.2% sharper acceleration
AND up to 5.8% better fuel consumption.

Tests on BP Ultimate Unleaded showed that the acceleration increase in equivalent to having the next larger engine size e.g It's like upgrading from a 1.8 to a 2.0.

Improves fuel efficiently by helping you go further on less fuel. By using Ultimate you could get up to 25 more miles from a full tank of fuel.

Also doubles the cleaning power of ordinary fuels, in Unleaded case the higher octane rating ensures that fuel burns better as you drive. It also removes performance robbing deposits from your engine that other fuels can leave behind.

BP Ultimate starts working at once and gets better the more you use it.

The increased octane of BP Ultimate is achieved by more thorough refining, not octane boosters.

BP Ultimate will be available in 100 stores within London as of today, and by mid-October all BP sites across the country will have BP Ultimate.

As of 08/10/03 the BP Ultimate website at http://www.BP will be up and running with information regarding the product.

Thank you again for your call, if you have any further queries please don't hesitate to call the BP Careline on 0800 402402.

what would scooby do

Why is everyone getting wound up over something that's not launched yet

When it comes it will be judged good or bad..

As for Optimax going off over time - that's just a myth curtesy of "tosser mycroft"

I had my car in for some work for over a month with a full tank of optimax - no knock indicated when I drove it back home.