Filled up at Woodall Services on the M1 yesterday - still the good stuff - you can smell it. Much 'sweeter' than ordinary petrol or old Optimax for that matter.

Oh and the car goes much better too

 

turning out to be very interesting this post is that i started.

anyways as i said before ive sent shell uk an email when i found out about this new stuff just to confirm what the checkout girl told me some weeks back! and they have just replied to me. this is what they had to say.


Dear Mr Clifton
Thank you for your enquiry regarding the above. I shall respond to you in due course.
Regards
Wendy Grimshaw
Customer Relations - Retail


NOTHING!

 

Filled up this morning.

Asked about new optimax.

"no idea not heard anything"

Not surprised tho really.

 

wot ever it is car is so strong at the mo got to be better

 

Had some Shell Engineers at our factory last week and asked them about the new V power. They said they have been flushing the tanks out for serveral weeks now at petrol stations, ready for the launch

They also mentioned it would be 102 ron

 

I really hope that is true regarding the RON rating but sadlt can't see it The BP 102 RON stuff is something like £2.30 per litre, but I have been told that that stuff is made up in small batches by hand so that may have a bearing on the price. If it is true however there are gonna be some very happy Scoobs out there

 

I used to used v-power in a CTR and couldn't notice any difference in power than 97 + 98 ron(i know its not a turbo but...) perhaps slightly better fuel consumption.

All these reports of it felt lots faster etc, sounds like magazine adverts for bolt on filters etc quotes of "sounded/felt much faster" but with no testing.

To fully benefit from this at a single tank fill up, wouldn't a ECU reset have to be done otherwise ecu wud gradually 'learn' new fuel or be mapped at tuners for optimum performance???

 

If a car is properly mapped to run 98ron then simply adding 100ron is unlikely to change things unless the new fuel has a different burn speed/oxygen content or calorific value. A bit like adding octane booster when you don't need it, it only adds to your safety margin against detonation (knock).

My race car actually runs slower on VP Prostock 118 race fuel than it does on Optimax...... if I don't change the mapping parameters to suit the fuel.

It may well be the case that Shell has changed much more than just the octane of the fuel otherwise most performance cars wouldn't know the difference unless remapped to suit. I'm sure thats not their target market

Unmapped (or badly mapped...lol) JDM cars are the ones that are likely to notice a difference as the ECU will have been holding back on the ignition advance on the lower octane 98.

Andy

 

To all those people who posted on here and noticed a difference, what cars are you driving and are they imports?

 

My tank is empty right now so I'm filling up tomorrow Although I I'm lucky to get a full sentance out of the staff at my local shell so I'm not sure its worth asking.


I did have a dream I had a CEL on last night though

 

I deffo felt a difference before I noticed this thread. My cars a P1 but was mapped for Optimax 98 by the guy 3 posts above. Does this mean he's a bad mapper? Only joking btw Andy.
I have notced a difference though with the car.

 

Await confirmation and UK launch with excitment!

Car mapped on Tesco 99ron and it would be nice to not have to plan journeys around selected Teco stores!

 

as long as the new optimax is a higher rating, and at a good price, i would be swapping over from tesco 99. car currently runs better on tesco than normal optimax... interesting to see if 100+ fuel makes a huge difference to a 93 engine, which i think would have been mapped originally for less than 100ron fuel. something to do with japan not having 100+ ron fuel available 13 years ago.

am i right in thinking this or do i need to be corrected??

andy

 

Think jap fuel has been around 100ron for a while (cud be wrong tho, often am )

 

When A; B & C(1&2)-Series (WRX) Imprezas were manufactured Japanese 'Premium Unleaded' had a lower octane rating. D-Series onwards cars (which were rated at 280PS) require 100RON fuel; other will run perfectly well on Optimax.

Simon

 

New Optimax is due for release on either the 23rd or 24th of this month..
Garages will be getting details and leaflets on the 17th..

 

Do you know if it is going to still be called Optimax??

 

V Power...so i'm told

hth

 

Think my local (garage not pub by the way) is starting with V-power. Price has jumped to 103.9/litre and i'm getting a few more miles (85-95 miles on £20). Can't say if power has increased. Certainly sounds different (but then that maybe down to the cooler weather we're having!!!).

If higher octane gives less knock does that mean we can run higher boost??

Car is My02PPP

Mark

 

basically, yes.

 

...whilst filling my scoob up I spilt some of this new 'wonder-fuel' my foot and when jogging that evening I found my right foot continually pulling away from the left one - it was somehow much stronger - and the left foot acceleration was clearly weaker uphill...

I'm going to try a definative test tonight by spilling some ordinary optimax on my left foot and then some 'new optimax' on my right foot and see which accelerates faster....If I go round and round the garden in circles I'll know for sure...

 

LOL

 

LOL Keep an eye on your kn(c)ocklink though, walking above a certain speed is not good for your big end!

 

lol at all the Placebos above...

I noticed a huge improvement in my car over the weekend.
We filled my wifes celica with V-power and my scoob just got up and fukced off!
must be the new fuel cos Im 100% positively, absolutely, cannot deny it sure it felt better this morning, even though the weather just turned ****

 

Response at my Local shell"


"Er....dunno, never heard o'it"

 

My car is still going on the tankful of tesco's finest at the moment, which cost 5p per litre less than the optimax from the garage next door.

My car is a JDM STI and on the standard map but I can't see much difference between the Optimax I had last week and the tesco stuff I have now. I still get the same amount of knocklink activity from each one. If Optimax was 102 ron then I'd expect my knocklite to look like the bulb has gone but the thing that silences it most is a dash of NF.

I really hope it is 102 ron and we get something official soon, I won't mind paying a bit more if it is.

 

It would be totally stupid of Shell to increase the price of the new fuel. The existing stuff is perfectly fine for just about all (un-modified) performance cars officially sold in the UK. I reckon Shell would eventually lose sales after the novelty aspect wore off, and people realise they don't actually need the extra 4RON, if they flog the stuff at a higher price?
JohnD

 

John
I was referring to the 5p per litre price difference between optimax and tesco 99 at the petrol stations near me, on the same road a few hundred yards apart. If optimax is 98 ron it isn't worth paying 5p more for it. However, if optimax is 102 ron then I would pay 5p more.

I don't know if something has changed in the last week or so re petrol prices but I was surprised to see 99 ron for less than £1 per litre, although I think the tesco stuff was always a little cheaper than optimax.

I agree with you though, the average driver with a car that doesn't adapt to or doesn't need to have 102 ron fuel isn't going to pay over the odds for it.

 

yea people wi jap imports will notice the diffrence as all jap imports are mapped to run on 100ron i noticed a big diffrence in mine as well as a diffrence in milage but deffo runs way better and pulls better its about time we got the fuel for our jap imports

 

Asked at my Local Station just outside Blackpool and they confirmed that V-Power will be launched in a few weeks and it will have a higher octane rating than Optimax. I suspect my last 2 fill ups have been the new stuff as I'm suddenly getting 20miles more to the tankfull.