Greetings all, I attended a wedding today in rural Shropshire, food was superb, surroundings glorious etc..etc..etc.

I happened to ask a guest where the nearest SHELL petrol station was as I was in need of some Optimax. He proceeded to tell me and then just threw into the conversation that he worked for Shell (he does I checked), he then told me not to worry about using Optimax as it was exactly the same fuel that BP or any other company sell as Super Unleaded. He was being very serious and also pointed out that he used to run his Z3 Coupe on Optimax until he was let in on this massive marketing bull**** story. Any comments on this story anyone? I've absolutely no reason to dis-believe him !

Skoosh.

I know the difference and it's not the same. Anyway, they would be in court if that was the case as they state the ron is 98 or more.

:-)

Mike

I usually run mine on BP super unleaded, but occasionaly treat it
to Optimax, can't say I realy notice a differance.

Col

I sort of believe you on this, as there is fuel depot a few miles from me and all of the oil refining companies (BP, Shell, Total, Jet etc) road tankers seem to come out of the place. Maybe its just a designated/approved facility for all companies, who knows?

The only argument I can put forward against this is, if they all use the same stuff then why would say BP or Total not claim that there SUL was 98ron and improved performance etc? Surely allowing Shell to market the same fuel in this way would be detrimental to the SUL sales of the other oil companies.

Optimax - 81 ppl (or summat like)

BP SUL 92 ppl

therefore its not the same, or BP are the ones ripping us off, not Shell, so whats the prob? Buy Optimax then! :)

92ppl for bp sul. where the feck are u buyin your juice m8. jeeesuus. now that IS a rip off. :(

cheers

big sinky

i couldn't find optimax or sul last night, had to put a tenners worth of normal in. :(

my knock meter didn't show anything on the rest of the journey home, so i think i survived ;)

I'm one of life's major Optimax skeptics. And I'm not alone.

Round my way Optimax happens to be cheaper than Super UL at other garages, so I end up using that with no problems so far.

Last time I had my car over at with John Banks we were driving along (hard) and he asked, 'what fuel you got in here' to which I replied 'SUL' - The reason: the car was retarding more than when we'd previously set it up on Optimax. There is no doubt Optimax is more resistant to knock (hence higher RON). I just find that my car runs really bad on Optimax and doesn't feel as fast. I've decided to compromise and go for SUL + Booster :)

My car seems to have better fuel economy on SUL rather that Optimax, which is starange because on my other car it was the other way round. Beats me.

Why not just the old girl on deisel?? Ohh no another choice!!! Ahh! Anyway where can you get decent octance boosters from and are they as usfull/usable as optimax?

Does anyone know if using SUL would be ok in an import as i have been running mine on Optimax and it does prove a pain in the bum when you're visiting somewhere else driving round trying to find a shell garage! You look like a right tit when you ask people walking past a texaco garage where Shell is cos you're desperate for Fuel!

Optimax has a low calorific value compared to SUL, so along with the advanced ignition you will use more fuel to get the same power... OCTANE IS NOT POWER... CALORIES = POWER... Octane only denotes the flamefront properties... it allows you to advance the ignition or keep it 'in place' longer with self-retarding units (knock sensor controlled) The truth is that if your car works well with SUL and the ignition is absolutely standard then Optimax with its lower CV will give you LESS performance and you have to press harder to stay 'where you were' and you as a consequence use more fuel...

Well done Mycroft.

A straightforward explanation of what I suspected in the 20k I can my car on Optimax and then (after the engine meltdown) back onto SUL - the car was definitely more consistently responsive on this.

Confused now. Have just filled up my bog standard Clio RenaultSport 172 with Optimax. Sticker on filler cap says to use 98RON when possible. Are you saying I am better off putting 97RON SUL in it?

Darren

it's so confusing on scoobynet it makes you paranoid about what petrol is best or one thing or another is the best or right to use at one stage optimax was best now that may not be the case

Too true. I really want the definitive answer to this one.

Darren

A spokesperson at Shell told me the reason Optimax wasn't available at all Shell garages in the UK, was logistics. If it's just SUL, then why's it so hard to find?

When we were in the Highlands at Easter, there was plenty of SUL around if you looked, but no Optimax in Fort William or Inverness (but there was in Nairn...). Bearing in mind the huge numbers of Scooby Turbos seen in both towns, maybe it's a lost opportunity.

Cheers

Have just done a search on Optimax on the cliosport forum and they seem as just as confused.

Arguments for:

Cleans engine
Runs smoother
More responsive
Better mpg

Arguments against:

Less responsive http://216.40.249.192/s/cwm/cwm/uhoh3.gif
Poorer mpg http://216.40.249.192/s/cwm/cwm/uhoh3.gif
Degrades quickly

There are a lot of conflicting argumentshttp://smilies.crowd9.com/cwm/cwm/uhoh.gif

You pays yer money, but I'll be sticking with Esso or BP SUL the next time I'm back in a Scooby (my 6th)

(Re Fort William - UL was 4p /litre cheaper than Milton Keynes
when I was there in February. Cartel, price-fixing ? Never!)

Whatever others say, it works for me. Gives the 2 cars I've used it with, a good 5+% better consumption. I won't say there's more power, but I'm sure it helps to liberate the power that's there.

http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/threa...hreadID=168419

It only 'allow' advancement of the timing if you advance it manually... if you have done this then you will benefit... your car will NOT advance itself beyond its mapping... you have to adjust the base reference advance... not something many do... so you won't be gaining...

I don't want to baffle you so I'll really cut this down to the simplest explanation ever on the net of the 'benefits' of Optimax...

Optimax cleans the cylinders and head... now once the deposits are gone the reason for your retardation goes as well so you can then return to SUL and it won't retard so quickly... so the real value of optimax is as a cleaner... run it every 5th-6th tank full and the car will be faster overall... you may need 2 or 3 tank fulls to clean it out in the first place but that is it.. in a nut shell, if you run rich and have dark Sparks normally then you should really attend to the fuelling but if you dont then Optimax is good at stopping a big build up of carbon...

Mycroft,

not entirely true. The New Scoobs have real time advance and so will take advantage of the increased RON.

The Classics would need a remap.

For me the real truth about Optimax is that is NOT the same as SUL.

If you manually map cars you will get a different advance profile with Optimax than you will get with SUL. Optimax DOES enable more advance.

Rannoch

When I use other SUL my knocklink starts to light up a bit where as they never glow when I use optimax....!!!

Optimax for me!

Dom.

the uk classics would need a remap, the jap ones will enjoy it and will give more power (as there expecting a high ron fuel anyways)

A question for your all...

'Where in the rev range and under what circumstance will you need the ignition advanced.. where will it give more power?'

Interesting.

Who is this person that works for Shell then ? ... because I'd be very worried if he worked in my department ! He is talking absolute sh*te. Optimax is produced at Stanlow in the UK and is a Shell only grade.

He probably does work for an oil company though.

Optimax is **** IMHO!

An associate of mine had an STI -V5 which would stutter under acceleration on this stuff (he has suspicions that it led to the engines demise - requiring full rebuild!).

Use BP or Esso! these are the best it would seem for both Turbo and non turbo cars :)

...ditto Vtech