Does anybody know the octane rating of BP Ultimate, is it the same a Supe Unleaded.

 

nah mate it's 98ron, i use it in my scoob and have no probs at all!!

 

seems ok to me, bit did'nt really give it death

The shell garage is further, so a good excuse for a drive out I suppose

Think it's only 97RON though, oh well

 

BP Ultimate claims to be 97ron

 

so is that just as good for our scoobs as super unleaded but just a bit better for the tree huggers - its quite a bit more expensive round here (compeared to SU )

 

Rich have to agree we are better off using Optimax

Tony

Ps You and Jen didn't manage to come to Holt Fleet today then

 

I think it's only 97 Ron - but it's OK if you can't get any Optimax (which is cheaper round my way)!

 

yeah my nearest petrol garage is a bp one used to sell super unleaded for 81.9 Ultimate is now 86.9 2 shell garages 5 miles in either direction are circa 81.9 > 83.9.

Im using optimax all the time now. Didnt have any problems with BP ultimate just dont want to pay that much for it when there is a better alternative for less.

 

Tony, your loesing it me and Jen were there start to finish

We just dinned with the Unwashed next door lol

 

79.9 p/ltr in leeds

 

Yup, BP Ultimate is really a 'conventional' super unleaded, so has a RON of 97. Optimax is, IIRC, an 'enhanced' NUL, with a rating of 98.6.

 

I've been trying a Optimax Vs Ultimate experiment in my Type R for a week or two now. It started when I was stuck up in Birmingham and couldn't find a Shell garage anywhere so used Ultimate as an emergency and then topped up the octane levels with a bottle of emergency octane booster which I carry.

Whilst the Ultimate seems to give the best sound effects (i.e popping from the exhaust etc.) I'd have to say the smoothness of acceleration is noticably better with Optimax plus I seem also to get better MPG with Optimax....There is definately a flat spot at the arly stages of acceleration with Ultimate - it's not a violent flatspot but it is there. It certainly feels to me that Optimax has something that Ultimate doesn't and whether it's the extra octane levels I don't know....

My conclusion: Optimax by choice but Ultimate will do in an emergency (as a Type R owner I'd also recommend a Octane Booster with either/or). Oh, and you get free Top Trumps cards at Sheel with Optimax at the mo....

Cheers,


Russ

 

As Ultimate is just a standard SUL with an octane rating of 97, then in theory there shouldn't be any difference in performance, economy or smoothness between it and other 'conventional' SULs, such as Texaco etc.

Be interesting to hear comments/views on this. For my part, I can't tell the difference between any of the SUL offerings, although my MY02 WRX is certainly more eager with Optimax.

 

Optimax has a higher RON-98.6 and BP Ultimate is 97 RON. The Optimax will give more protection to your engine and is cheaper too.

Les

 

Fresh from a weekend on the continent, armed with DeltaDash, in my STi MY2002 (EU spec) with no engine mods, the Continental Super (Shell's Super Plus from Belgium in this case) which is 98RON caused my car to slightly back off the performance (which I could feel as slight hesitation on full boost) and is confirmed by DeltaDash. This shows that Optimax is indeed better than the general 98RON you get in Europe which IMHO really highlights that the 97RON of BP Ultimate is far inferior to Optimax.

BP Ultimate has the same calorific value as Optimax and is generally more expensive to boot so I can't see why anyone would use it except as above in an emergency.

Matt

 

Interesting this one......... ive just filled up at my local total garage and they have super unleaded at 98 ron......... runs very very sweet on it too cant notice any difference with optimax and total is cheaper too

hawk

 

I pay 78.9 to 79.9 / litre for Optimax - and all the other petrol stations seem to charge 84-85p / litre for Super Unleaded (Ultimate included) - 'Nuff said really .......

 

Interesting observation Matt. Some continental European countries have 97 and 98 RON fuel side by side, without much cost difference.

Can't imagine why any petrolheaded Impreza (or other performance car) owner should want to sacrifice decent running/smoothness/economy/better performance, except in an emergency - ie. when there's no Optimax pump in the area....

Not sure why other SUL vendors should claim a 98 RON rating, as IITC, the British Standard for SUL requires 97 RON.

 

Ultimate mucked up my SAAB turbo's (standard) boost levels - so no way will I put it an my scoob

 

Hawkeye, what petrol station was it? The only 98RON fuel you can get in the UK is Optimax, everything else is 97RON, regardless of how it's labelled!

RE: Continental Europe, I have never seen a 97RON pump over there, every Super pump I have seen is labelled 98RON (well, in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany). I didn't get a chance to visit a Shell station in Germany this time though but I am assured by friends who live there that V-Power in Germany (Optimax similar) is always 99RON

Matt

 

When I use Optimax, I get horrible pinking in my MY03 WRX at 2/3rds acceleration. I spoke to the dealer about it and he said I should try normal SUL as this had been a common niggle?

Anybody else had similar?

The BP stuff seems to be a tad more responsive than normal SUL and didn't pink in anyway.

Tim

 

Do you always fill up from the same Shell station?

 

Im noticing a bit of pinking. ive been running on ultimate since Christmas. Is pinking not more to do with the timing/fuel mix rather than the petrol itself???

 

shell are no longer the only 98 RON, esso have now uped theirs...

 

Are you sure? Where did you find out about this?

Just curious as there is an Esso garage about 0.5miles from my house and the nearest Shell is 13miles!!!

Would be dead-handy if Esso is 98RON aswell!

 

Several people started noticing 98 RON stickers/posters popping up at their local Esso's, hadn't myself but then i went to the one at lakeside services and they've just got brand new stickers etc.. for their pumps and all the super + ones state 98 RON, a guy on here also tested a batch of Esso and it came out as 98.6 RON, IIRC and dont know if it was the same guy but
someone tested Optimax and it came out as 97.6... you do the math

I'd assume that Esso wouldnt have two different grades of Super + rolling round the country...


BTW its miles to my nearest Shell aswell!

 

Interesting!!!! I will have to keep an eye open!

 

I give it another 36hrs before we get the next BP Ultimate vs Optimax, 98RON, blah blah thread

 

36hrs.......That long??