Yes its the urine from the French Pigs that we import in exchange for our sheep they burned and threw all over the road. hehehehe Shell Optimax m8 nothing better, makes the lady sing, Champagne pour la Voiture D11VE:J
I thought it was only at a few stores. My local still has ordinary unleaded and diesel. I would imagine that it will still be cheaper than optimax and ultimate. How long until the comments appear about the quality being poor? BTW I use Sainsburys super unleaded without problems.
I filled up yesterday with Optimax - from completely empty to totally full. At 93.9 pence per litre - that cost me more than I can afford. Rediculous.... However, I like to feel I can give the car the best it can have every now and then - it hasnt been "flushed" with the good stuff since the service. I would opt to use BP or Supermarkets anyday....
I have a strange recollection from last summer that one of the pumps at the petrol station just outside Silverstone paddock has 114 RON 'race-grade' petrol for sale, but it is well over a quid a litre..... This may not be on sale any more, of course. I'm not normally overly fussy on which petrol I put in my Fcar. I will use Optimax when I see it at a non-silly price, but certainly use regular unleaded as well occasionally (especially as at Tesco Extras their starting price is 81p a litre and if you spend fifty quid in the shop you get another 5p a litre off that). It makes a difference with a 110 litre tank ! J.
Which one is this Nicola - Mereway or Weston Favell? I worked at the Mereway one for near on 5 years! As such, it amazes me that people have thoughts like TonyH above - its not an uncommon comment, but I'm thinking it is a rumour spread by the likes of BP, Shell etc. I cant comment on what the deal is now, but when I worked there 99% of the fuel came from Texaco and it was exactly the same stuff you could buy on their forecourts. I would use Tesco juice, no bother, if there were one near me. I use the local Sains's and havent had any problems with their Super when I have used that, putting it in anything from and XK8 to a 04 C4S with no problems (note, never filled a Ferrari up there). I must admit, I used Optimax in an M5 I used to run and that, maybe it was psychological, seemed to fly on that stuff!!! As Lee P commented though, it can be expensive when youre filling up, but you know its good stuff. All the best Jamie
Don't believe the hype. Higher octane is not higher power (only for older or modded cars) A brand new Ferrari, even with the relatively high compression ratios doesn't need 100 Octane. You reach the optimum ignition advance with 95 octane or so. Perhaps an older engine with carbon deposits that may be more prone to knocking may see some benefits. A low compression engine like the Meganes you reach max brake torque ignition timing with 92 octane (may even be lower). Unless you've moded the engine you are wasting your money. Aren't you guys paying enough for petrol as it is? http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=134557355&postcount=9
Jamie, my closest Tesco is Mereway (I hate that place). And to Simon, nobody mentioned that the higher ron fuel made their cars go faster. It is just a bit of tlc for the car.
On My RS6 the handbook and the dealer specified that you should use at least 97 RON. It says you can use 95RON in emergencies but prolonged use will damage the engine. I have assumed therefore that it makes a difference and use Optimax in the Dino as well.
Sorry m8 statistics show whats true. I will not argue the higher power bit, what I do know from countless trips in X5 is that I get 10-15% more mpg from Optimax than I do from best grade unleaded, not BP blue stuff, still not quite as good as Optimax, Optimax return on mpg is far higher, I can tell straight away when one of the boys has put 95 or 98 unleaded in to my car. I get to Leicester and back with 1/4 tank left with Optimax, 120 miles to go, its on empty with 98, - 50 miles to go (98) and even worse with 95, lucky to make it home. No B4llsh1t, its miles better. You pays for what you get and as an energy and combustion engineer I can tell you that Supermarkets buy lower grade petrol from the dregs of the barrel, low cut petrol, like all products petrol is cracked in various ratios, you get the crap left after the good quality is taken off the top. The BS standard measures calorific value per centilitre tested, every blend is just that, a blend, no one cut is standard, they mix fuels, each mix is a different flame temperature. The crap comes from the heavy end of the fuel, thats why cars driving out of Tesco have the rear springs compressed hehehehehehe. High Octane = where the power comes from. Hence racing fuel was top dog stuff with 30% more power, who remembers that pungent stuff they ran on in 1992, smelt nothing like petrol, it was high end cut and thats why they banned it because they could play with engine power in the fuel mix. Try putting a fridge around your fuel tank for up to 50% more mpg and more power from less fuel. Honest its true. D11VE:J
I'm not sure - its been there as long as I have known Northampton. It was definitely open in 1988, but I'd guess mid 80's.
Wow I find that difficult to believe, at a push in the 575, but in the lazy old X5 (I assume you mean the 4.4 or 4.6?) Still, you have observed what you have observed and I can't contradict that. Octane number is purely an indication of resistance to self ignition. Question is though, is the 10-15% better fuel consumption worth the 10-15% high price. As an energy engineer I thought you might have spotted that one. (Meant in good humour)
Mr J As someone who knows what he's talking about, can you help me out please? You see, the hydro-carbons in the fuel need, as you say cracking to break them into useful products. And as I understand it, the more "RON" you have, the more bonds you have? The more bonds you have, the more energy that is consumed in the breaking of the bonds? Is this true? It cant be, its a contradiction....? Its been a while since I did chemistry, and cannot remembe the corolation between the energy required to break a bond and the number of bonds in the chain. Cheers Lee
I supposed as a guy who works with fuel I should dispell the rumours.Yes most fuel comes from the same terminal(depot).However if is the amount/type of additives/detergents that make all the difference.Most supermarket fuel has less additives/detergents or a poorer type of addive/detergent is used.This is how they manage to keep their fuel prices down.Shell/BP etc use a higher grade of additive/detergent and more of them, hence why they tend to be more expensive. I also queried this with a bigwig from Total and he showed me the evidence!
The octane rating of fuel for spark ignition engines is an indication ONLY of the fuel's resistance to knock (what we used to call pinking). Octane rating does not in any way imply any other charecteristic of the fuel. With all else being equal, when considering only octane rating you will only get a benefit with higher octane fuels IF: - Your engine has a high CR and the management system is running active knock control with the calibration mapped to exploit higher octain's knock resistance through spark advance. - You are running in very high ambient temperatures, where the ingested ambient air temperature results in reduced air-charge density & therefore predisposition to knock, resulting in spark retardation. - you are running a turbocharged car with active knock. As a rough principle, (within limits) ignition advance + high CR = more power Ignition retardation = less power. High octane will tolerate more advance. The octane rating can be expressed as either RON or MON meaning "Research Octane Number" or "Motor Octane Number". This difference is simply the test method. With MON the fuel/air charge is preheated, there is variable ignition timing and higher engine speeds on the test engine. You cannot compare MON to RON. Octane rating can be boosted by blending the "base" fuel with trimethyl pentane (C8H18) and n-heptane (C7H16). In the old days lead-alkyl compounds were widely used (tetraethylene and tetramethyline leads). Nowadays legislation limits the total lead content to 150mg/litre of petrol. Legislation strictly controls the quality of road fuels sold to the public on a forecourt. The supermarket fuels all match the british standards. As has been previoulsy mentioned, the main differentiator between supermarket and "premium" fuels are the additives. With my somewhat limited knowledge of fuels chemistry (it's a real specialism) I would always take fuel with the minimum additive content and highest octane rating over the so-called premium fuels. I buy 98RON from Sainsbury's and get the Nectar points too ! I'm going to stop now because this is getting too much heavy...
I have recently put about 2 tank-fulls of normal unledded fuel in (not supermarket) and added some octane boost liquid that I got from Halfords. The car seemes to be running smoother and quieter than usual, I normally fill up with Optimax. So today I filled up with Optimax as per usual and put the octane boost stuff. I'll see what happens.
