CAR2

Perth prices are all over the place with fuel ...so I happened to be at a BP and I reluctantly filled with their slightly more expensive 98 Ron (who is Ron and what does he look like? or maybe its see you later ron because it is so good). Anyway the car feels like it has at least 10% (maybe more) power. Am I imagining it? It really seems much better than the Woolworths sh*t I've been using.
What do you think Harry - (Harry is always here - no life other than the net).

dixonbn

Don't use anything but BP Ultimate - is made locally, is the cleanest you can get and will have more power especially if you have just been using standard unleaded.

CAR2

No I've been using the premium fuel....but the BP seems much better. Where's that turbo falcon piece of cr*p now - it beat me by half a car length the other day..

zuff

It all in your head.

You won't be making any more power with 98ron fuel. The rating relates it's resistance to knocking at high revs.

It means you can tune your car's ECU to be more borderline/extreem and still be "safe".

alternatively the fuel you were using was so bad that the knock sensor has been retarding the timing until now....lol! Possible but unlikely!

ottonove

been using Shell Optimax ever since it first introduce into australia, so far so good....

how is that compare to BP Ultimate??

harryw

Thanks a farkin lot Chris!

As always

H

sundog

I've only been using Optimax as well, I get no choice with the fleet card. But saying that, I would never run the Z on anything but the best premium anyway. The arguments about BP and Shell premium fuels has been going for a while, it's seems a very subjective matter.

As far as I'm aware, the Woolies fuel is cheap imported Malaysian petrol that isn't refined as much as the local varieties, hence the price differences. It's supposedly the same fuel as Safeways and the other discount chains (Liberty etc). I would sooner p**s in my tank than load it with that stuff (more ron ). Stick to the more expensive local produced juice, you're injectors will thank you for it.

Jim

CAR2

Goodday Harry - just kidding!!

frosty

Zuffy - I think that it will go better on the 98 - wont the cpu (?) reprogramme to the higher octane? There's been a lot along those lines on the USA site - particularly relating to exhausts and "drive around the block to give it time to reset", etc.

Note though, that the CALTEX premium is only 95, and they don't have a 98.

Only company owned sites have the higher octane premium -

Shell Optimax
BP Ultimate
Mobil Synergy.

Personally I don't opt for the Shell - it leaves nasty brown deposits on my bike plugs - and Im advised that Shell obtains the extra octane rating with additives rather than through refinement.

Still seems ok in the car, though.

Waitllyerseemewidertrack! (settle down H)
FROZZTY

harryw

I was only farkin with you, Chrisxx.

Anyway, I try wherever possible to use BP and Mobil as they AFAIK are the only companies who dont blend their fuel with other "nasties" or other types of fuel.

I have once used "normal" unleaded and I didnt notice the difference.

BTW, one of the advantages of being your own boss is you can leave your computer on a page and just refresh it whenever you like.

As always

H

dixonbn

Harry and Frosty are right - Shell is blended rather than totally manufactured as in the case of BP and Mobil 98's, and some do find the Optimax leaves deposits or a bad smell. BP is also recognised as having the cleanest fuels in Aus.

apsilon

I always use BP Ultimate or Optimax if I can't get the BP.

As Frosty suggested you may get more power if the ECU is smart enough to advance the timing with the higher octane fuel. That said I could feel no difference between Vortex Gold and BP Ultimate with the Zed whereas I could on my previous car.

DavidM

You won't be making any more power with 98ron fuel. The rating relates it's resistance to knocking at high revs.

According to the manual that came with my Zed, I should be ONLY filling it with 98RON fuel. It sais to use 95RON fuel only if an emergency and then to take it easy on the engine.

That implies to me that the Zed's here are tuned for 98RON and therefore running anything else will rob you of some power (though, we are talking about something like 2 - 3%).

Besides that, some cars are 'smart' enough to take advantage of better fuel. WRX, S2000 and HSVs are just some of them. HSV's claim different power figures depending on what fuel you are planning to use. Also the WRX club (in NSW) did some dyno test with 98RON vs 95RON fuel and they found that the the 98RON fuel showed about 3% gain.

Then there's a test in the CAR magazine where they had a Z3 3.0, Civic Type-R and an MG. They did a lot of performance (ie. rolling start acceleration) testing with the 98RON fuel as well as 95RON fuel. They published 100s of different acceleation numbers (ie. lot's of increments in different gears at different speeds) for the cars with both fuels. Results were that the 98RON fuel did (generally speaking) result in better numbers ... but we're talking about something in the order of 2 - 3% ... not something that you could feel. You could feel 'something', but I boubt it's the actual difference in acceleration.

KY350

I believe Wooloworths Premium fuel is Caltex Gold 95 RON - don't know if ot comes from Malaysian or other parts of the world.

AndyB

RON = Research Octane Number (octane determined by scientific testing)

MON = Motor Octane Number (octane determined with a knock motor)

As for more octane giving more power.... It is true that JUST adding more octane won't give you more power. But in the case of the Z more octane allows the engine to run more spark advance and that can give you more power.

zuff

We already run the max advance with the recommended fuel...well thats my understanding so far.

Ie... if i was to put in 104 ron (elf?) it wouldn't improve the car one iota.

Maybe Nathan or Peter can give us an idea if they use race fuel and whether the ECU has to be reprogrammed to take advantage of the better detonation specs.

CAR2

chris mutters I still think it feels faster....