bluepolarbear

Nope. Full your car with optimax run a 0-60 fuel it with Sainsbury SUL and run a 0-60 - **** all difference - a fluff gear change will make a bigger difference.

It is all made to a standard and the engine is mapped to that standard - it isn't complicated.

Dark Blue Mark

I had a UK once upon a time, ran it on SUL then NUL, hey presto - check engine light due to excess knock and went into limp mode. Ok it remapped to a safe level but it certainly noticed the difference.

Ive done some testing of my own, and I know many of the mappers on here have got proven results from using Optimax - its visible when mapping the extra advance that can be had.

MB

bluepolarbear

You can map the engine to any fuel. The fact remains that every car sold in the UK has to be law run perfectly happily on NUL. However, we are not talking about NUL we are talking about different SUL. A std UK will not care what SUL is put in it, in the sense that it makes no real world difference.

GaryCat

That's what I was told today as well. M1 services in Yorkshire somewhere. I had to fill up with 95... luckily I have a switchable boost map

GaryCat

When I put Sainsburys SUL in mine the CEL came on and kept coming on until I got the knock sensor replaced.

StickyMicky

nope, i filled up today with plain old optimax

shustir

Not sure if this is strictly true. Had an E36 M3 Evo previously and it was recommended to run on 98 RON only. It would take 95 RON but retarded the ignition and wasn't particularly happy about it.

gatecrasher3

Back on topic. Is Optimax staying or is Shell replacing it?

RB5_245

There's a bit in the owners manual on the rb5 somewhere that says run on 98 octane fuel. You can run on 95 if you really have to, no less. (that's not a quote by the way).

There is v-power and v-max in europe, V-Max is the german one. 100Ron, V-power is the one we have in holland 95Ron but more expensive that usual shell 95Ron. Most annoyed when I noticed the 95 sign after filling with 1/2 a tank.

I use 'Total' 98 in holland. This is my results on full throttle with diff fuels, measured by lighting the knocklink. (Not std car btw)

Optimax - 1 green on occasion, 2 sometimes
BP Ultimate - 1 green regularly, 2 quite often (1 tank, never used again)
Esso 97 - Lots of lights, slowed down, never opened up again on that tank
V-Max 100 - No activity
Total 98 - No activity, saw 1 green once maybe
V-power 95 - Similar to optimax but run with slightly retarded ign map

LiamWR1(2)

Shell U.K. Oil Products Limited
[IMG]cid:image001.jpg@01C68A13.87C47A10[/IMG]


Retail Customer Service
Rowlandsway House
Rowlandsway
Wythenshawe
Manchester
M22 5SB
Tel 0800 731 8888
Fax 0161 499 4903
Internet http://www.shell.com/uk
Our ref: 29802

07th June 2006

Dear Mr X

Thank you for your recent email regarding Optimax supplies.

I can assure you that Shell have not stopped producing Optimax, and are committed to this grade for the foreseeable future. I have checked our records and can find no instances of Somerby Hill Service Station stocking out of fuel. Unfortunately if Dealer owned and operated do not report a fuel stockout, Shell are unable to amend deliveries to ensure the site receive fuel.

I am sorry that on this occasion you were unable to purchase Shell Optimax.

Kind regards.

Yours sincerely



Matthew Wagster
Customer Relations – Retail


Strange? a cover up me thinks...........

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

I spoke to the guy on checkout at the Shell station on the M1 (south of Sheffield). He said Optimax is being withdrawn and V-Max is being brought in to compete with Tesco. Told me it would be a couple of week before they had stock.

powerwrx

iTrader: (11)

went in my local shell today and asked,they said they knew nothing abut optimax being withdrawn and had never heard of vmax

RB5_245

Shell customer relations vs. the guy on the checkout then. lol.

LiamWR1(2)

The guy on the checkout EVERY TIME

billythekid

I aksed the guy at Shell HQ for a response from marketing and this is what I got:

I've received a reply to your query from Marketing, see below.

Shell will continue to provide a high quality differentiated fuel.
Shell Optimax was developed for those UK motorists who seek increased performance and protection for their car.
In determining which fuels to offer to our customers in any given market we undertake extensive research in order to determine which is the most appropriate portfolio to make available.
We will continue to supply the fuels most appropriate for our customers given current customer needs, emerging customer needs, and manufacturing and logistical capabilities and constraints.
With Shell Optimax we feel we have struck the right balance for now in the UK market and we are delighted with the customer response that we have experienced since launch.

alloy

Sounds like there is just a slight shortfall or some trucks have been delayed. I've found Optimax at the pumps i visit and with these responses from Shell and no press releases i'm sure we're alright for the next few weeks at least

lunar tick

iTrader: (2)

Says it all really - these kind of statements keep things nice and ambiguous, which is what Shell would want if they are planning to lauch a new fuel (they'd probably want to keep it hush-hush until they make an official announcement and big marketing drive)

MarksWRX

So the fact that Optimax is 98 ron and Sainsbury SUL is 97 makes no difference according to you. Dont think so..

LiamWR1(2)

Optimax is (unlike all other SUL fuels) prepared at Shells Stanlow refiinery from a specially designed base fuel, unlike other SUL's which all contain the same base fuel but receive an 'additive injection' while they are being transferred to road tankers for delivery to the garages. So it is unique, and designed from the ground up rather than an additive to NUL fuels.

bluepolarbear

It makes new real world difference. About the same as having a good **** before you go out, less than the difference between a full and empty fuel tank etc etc etc etc.

Don't tell me - you are yet another scooby driver who can tell whether his toast for breakfast on the backseat on the way to work is butter side up or down based on the way the change in COG affects the handling of the car.

A world of approximations but SUL vs UL maybe worth a tenth of secondm to 60, so 98 to 97 (I'm sure you are factoring the fact that the RON rating drops as the petrol ages) is worth around 50 milliseconds on the run to 60.

I bet you can't even get your gear changes to be within a half second each and every time.

Davey P

iTrader: (1)

It's just about making your car quicker, but making sure the car is running safely.

Scoobdogg

iTrader: (2)

In my local (only Optimax supplier for 40miles) garage yesterday an there was no optimax there either he informed me that shell had instructed them to get the tanks down to 600L an leave them at that as they will be refilling them with a better grade of fuel an anymore than that in the tanks would affect it, he did not mention as to whether it would be under a different name i assume theyve just made some changes to optimax.

nik52wrx

Are we saying Optimax is the only fuel to use?
What if there's no Optimax, do we not drive or do we take a do or die step and put Ultimate in.
I am off to Silverstone this weekend and i dont intend to plan my route around Shell garages, hope my car (uk sti) survives
Nik

RB5_245

95 octane fuel may well have a higher calorific value than 98, which means in injecting the sme quantities the 95 may well improve your accelleration at a detrimental effect to your engine, anyway the test we want to know is what the MON value is rather than RON, ron is a pretty basic internal combustion test, whereas MON is more conducive toward seeing how a fuel dets at higher loads are more related to turbo engines.

The RON value can stay the same while the MON value is different.

from my experience with a knocklink
Optimax = high MON (compared to RON)
Ultimate = not quite so high
ESSO 97= lower MON
Total 98 = high MON

All IMO

bluepolarbear

A std UK car will run for years on NUL let alone SUL

MarksWRX

I dont need to be able to feel the difference I mearly watch my knockink and psi3 and I can SEE the difference. And anyway, yes, I CAN feel the difference when I get a bad/poor tank of fuel. Probably due to driving my car every day and doing about 500 miles a week in it.
I doubt whether the RON rating drops a great deal in the 3 days that it is in my tank and the garage I use gets a fresh delivery every week so nothing to factor in.
My gear changes are fine thanks and a dam sight better than yours if you cant get them to within a half a second of each other.
Yes my car would run on NUL but do I really want to. Why spend a load of money buying and modifying a car and then try to save a few pence running it.

jasonius

iTrader: (1)

I went to a Shell market research Q&A session last year (as did a few other members IIRC) and they were testing Optimax user's reaction to v-Power 99 ron..

So I would say it's more than likely about to hit the pumps. The popularity of Tesco 99 has obviously made their mind up for them..!

DCI Gene Hunt

Hope so

Robocop

I’ve just spoken at length to the proprietor of a large Shell garage near where I work in Bristol.

He confirmed that there is a new blend of Optimax due within the next two weeks. He mentioned that he ran stocks down of the current Optimax a couple of weeks ago in anticipation of the new stuff arriving.

He was unable to confirm if in fact it will have a new name or not.

bluepolarbear

If your happy to pay more to power same green lights then great. But as you say we have a performance car. There is no performance difference between SUL and Optimax - get a stop watch out (better at measuring performance then some coloured LEDs) and time it. You won't be accelerating any quicker on Optimax. RON rating are not related to the energy content of the fuel.