trouble is living in the mid Wales we only ever dream of tescos and shell is 18 miles away!! Man I have never seen a gauge go down so fast !!!!

 

Put a tank of v power in today had about a quater of normal fuel in (well esso super unleaded ) because I could n't find a shell garage on my way home. Couldn't tell a differance for about 20 miles but now it feels better sharper , not sure if its just phcological but feels quicker red lines better , ( sure I will end up blowing it up )

Ben

 

shell vpower! or tesco 99ron!!
you would be foolish to use anything else!!!!

 

tesco 99ron & v power
for me only mainly tesco 99 as car remapped on it & its abit cheaper + club card points helps pay for holidays

 

it should say on your fuel flap super unleaded only and mines a 2litre wrx turbo running 95 ron fuel will cause engine detonation

 

Indeed it does Nick says 98 ron to be used ! Well there promising to build a tesco in my town so hope they do now or its an 18 mile trip to Aberystwyth or Newtown 27 mile for fuel. I go to both places often so will have to tank up when I go.

 

v power as mine is mapped with it

wiley

 

Where?

Sorry mate, tried 98, 97 and 95 RON in my UK MY97 over several months. 4 things noticed.

1, no difference in power
2, no difference in fuel consumption
3, no difference in "smoothness"
4, SUL costs a LOT more.

 

Have you tried 99 RON? Vpower or Tescos?

Ben

 

Well most other people find the following on a classic between unleaded and super

1. Increase in power
2. Decrease in fuel consumption
3. Increase in smoothness
4. No change in money but much nicer to drive

You also need to reset the ecu and run a couple of tanks of fuel through the car to start to notice any difference, it does take a little while for the ecu to learn on the older cars.

Tony

 

Id expect it run smoother and Id certainly expect to see improved fuel economy: probably sufficient to make running SUL cheaper...

Simon

 

I've used over the 6 years of owning my 93wrx
95 normal unleaded
97 BP Utimate and Tescos
98 Total Excellium,Optimax
99 Vpower and Tescos

the difference between 95 and 97 was quite a shock only used 95 for the first few months of ownership then found out it should SUL minimum.
My car hated BP Ultimate tried it when it when it was first released so i'm not going to be using it again.
Tescos 97 nothing wrong with it apart from seemingly less mpg
Optimax when i found out SUL had to be used started using this straight away found it made the car more responsive,mpg slightly improved.
Total Excellium i've only just used this recently (no shell/tescos nearby) and found it to be perfectly fine for my car (drive from Egham to Dorset and it was very smooth,very responsive)
V power/Tescos 99 RON can't really find any significant performance difference although mpg seems beter with V power.
When i've had to change RON rating i've normally manually reset the ecu (paranoia tbh)

 

His-n-hers,

Try a google search.....
I'm sure I seen one thru this forum a few months ago with links aswell.

Thorney Motorsport October 2008 Fuel Test Report
^^
This is one that I thought was a good report.....

Did 5th gear not test this also and find that Tesco 99 outperformed V-Power??
Can't remember what that was between tho....??

Tested: the best performance fuels - What Car? also shares some of the same opinions.

 

His-n-hers,

Try a google search.....
I'm sure I seen one thru this forum a few months ago with links aswell.

Thorney Motorsport October 2008 Fuel Test Report
^^
This is one that I thought was a good report.....

Did 5th gear not test this also and find that Tesco 99 outperformed V-Power??
Can't remember what that was between tho....??

Tested: the best performance fuels - What Car? also shares some of the same opinions.

 

Firstly, my UKMY97 is mapped for 95ron as standard, unlike the jap imports that will notice poorer running when using the lower ron fuels that the car is NOT mapped for.

The links above tend to refer to modified cars which have been mapped, for the higher ron fuels, and therefore there is no surprise that they will not perform as well on the lower ron fuels.
Have done a bit of research and found some very interesting results.
Which? magazine ran an independent test last year on a Focus and a Golf 1.4 turbo.

On the Focus Tesco99 REDUCED power by 0.6% and increased fuel economy by an astonishing 0.75 mpg PMSL

"Our verdict: There's little justification for using super fuels over their regular counterparts, especially as filling the Focus on V-Power for 12,000 miles will cost you £115 (6.5%) more than using Shell or Tesco 95 Ron unleaded"

On the golf (which should be run on 98RON as standard) Shell V power gave a 5.3% power increase over 95RON (which the car ids not mapped for) and an increase of, wait for it, 0.7mpg.......

Put that in your fuel tank and burn it LOL

 

Out of interest then, are all classic UK Turbos (without additional remap) designed to run on 95RON fuel?

 

Yep

 

Well v power looks clear and smells different to Bp which just looks like normal greeny blue fuel. Vpower is allmost clear. I would say hes talking , well you know what!!

Ben

 

Hi Connor, think you should notice a difference, your car is running boost and a remap.

Unfortunately my cars are both MY97 fixed map. Am looking for a Prodrive ECU which runs on 97 RON I believe.

By the way, think your mate at the BP may be spouting S**t, but then again

 

Well, my classic seems to run sh1te on BP Ultimate, just does not 'pull' as strong. Got Tesco 99 in at the moment, and seems ok (nearest Tesco 99 station is about 12 miles away thou :-( ) Did put some Total Exelium 97??? It really seemed to like that the way I like Stella!!! Strange.

PS - Just thought, mine supposingly has a Prodrive ECU (really need to lift carpet and have a look) so must make sure I stick to super!

 

SNet must be the king of fuel threads.

 

Yeah, I love putting the cat among the pigeons and see the reaction when I say that I run 95RON and can't tell the difference LOL

 

my 05 wrx's filler cap says '98 ron only' - do classics and newages have different requirements (mods aside)?

pretty sure the manual says you can run on lower octane if absolutely necessary, but not recommended unless it's an emergency.

i've only ever filled up with vpower for years except for literally two occasions. never really had trouble finding a shell station in recent times as i loaded them up in my sat nav as a group - even on road trips. luckily day to day there's plenty near me anyway...

 

Sorry Spruxxx,

Don't know about much about the later new age cars.

Had a 53 plate WRX last year that defo ran better on the more expensive stuff.

It's the UK Classics (no mods/remaps or Prodrive ECU) that run 95RON

 

so if I have a Uk classic 99 I can run 95 ron, as this is what it says in the book, but if I have an ECUteck re-map I should run 97ron or higher? Or can I still use 95 ron if I have had a remap?

 

I put a 10nrs worth of Texaco 95 ron **** in the other day in my UK turbo - big big big mistake!!!
Ran like a dog, missing popping and farting etc...

Tesco 99 or Vpower only for me!

 

Alexst,

Unlike the old days (valve seat/compression ratios etc) it's the map that dictates the grade of fuel you use. Use the fuel the machine was mapped to.

Standard UK classics were mapped for 95RON, Prodrives I believe were 97RON, your car may be mapped for 97, 98 or 99 (or 95) according to the instructions given to the mapper.

Try a couple of tank fulls low octane, logging mpg, then try a couple of high octane and compare and decide for yourself wether the differences are worth paying the extra for. In some cases the answer will be yes, in others..no. if it runs nice on the expensive stuff and you like it, pay the extra, but if you can't tell the difference save the pounds

Don't bother with the fabled ecu reset. The ecu is adaptive and will learn the difference, takes about 50 miles.

 

I got a wrx import classic and it does run better on sul from tesco...But did put normal in when i first got it and it ran rough and kept popping and missing a bit..goes better on 99 tesco.