Shell V Power Fuel

mike65

Whats the story here - first they give us Super Unleaded, then Pura and now its V-Power. Are they all the same and why bother anyway. No other retailer seems to be interested in these superduper blends.

Is it RON95 or 98?

Its been on sale for up to 2 years in some countires.

Mike.

Our man in Havana

Seems to be an excuse to charge another 5 cents a litre. How are they going to pay Quentin Wilson for all those voiceovers?
My car's manual tells me not to use anything other than 95 unleaded or engine damage will result.

Tommy Vercetti

it's just 95ROn which is allegedly less harmful to the environment, and extremely unharmful to Mr Shell's bank balance. They sell it on the continent where it's 98-100 RON, don't get ripped off buying that crap here

Kersh

Its definitely 95 octane. I cant see the point in using it to be honest. Dont know why Shell bother.

BrianD3

I have heard reports of Shell "Optimax" brand petrol which is sold in the UK giving slightly better fuel ecomony and performance in some cars. Is the V-Power/Pura stuff here the same petrol just with a different brandname? I have used Pura a few times and noticed no difference. ( except for having a lighter wallet afterwards )

BrianD3

IrishRover

I'm almost certain that the Shell Optimax that is sold in the UK is 98RON and I think there is a 100RON variant of it sold on the continent.
Is the V-Power just a new name for Pura (which was never marketed as a performance fuel, but rather as a cleaner fuel)?

On a related note, I am having difficulty finding a garage these days that sells 98 octane fuel. Does anyone know where there are any? With fuel prices the way they are going, I doubt it will be very popular but it seems to have become far less common over the last while. What's happened to it?

BrianD3

On a related note, I am having difficulty finding a garage these days that sells 98 octane fuel. Does anyone know where there are any?

Check out the "Statoil Ripoff" thread for some info. There is an Esso garage near mullingar that is selling super unleaded. The catch is - it's 1.25 euros per litre :eek:

BrianD3

Wrestlemania

V power I think has a detergent in it, f*ck that, a bit of fairy Liquid with you petrol and youre sorted


A nice bubbly exhaust

kayos

V-Power is 100RON in mainland europe bar holland I think. Its 95RON in Ireland and the UK. Is it any good? Well I gave my tank a fill or two of it (back when it cost what normal petrol costs now) and there was not that much of a difference.. slightly better trottle response but nothing worth the extra 5c a litre..

I've used Optimax in the UK and I loved it. 1 full tank of Optimax + 1 bottle of Millers and the the difference scared me!! Even compared to SUL with a bottle of Millers. I'm always doubtfull about buying SUL over here as it really does not seem to have the difference it should and I know it can have. If Optimax came in over here I would be over the moon cause running 95RON fuel with out a bottle of octane boost leads to pinking in my engine .

mudflapgirl

Originally posted by IrishRover
On a related note, I am having difficulty finding a garage these days that sells 98 octane fuel. Does anyone know where there are any?

there's an ESSO in clondalkin that sells SUL too. 126.9 ish methinks though :rolleyes:

IrishRover

BrianD3 wrote:

Check out the "Statoil Ripoff" thread for some info. There is an Esso garage near mullingar that is selling super unleaded. The catch is - it's 1.25 euros per litre :eek:

BrianD3

I have found a Texaco garage that sells super unleaded. However, it is only 97 octane.

I have also found 2 Esso garages that sell super unleaded. However, it is not indicated anywhere what octane rating it is. In the first Esso garage, the guy behind the counter "explained" to me that super unleaded was actually a substitute for leaded petrol. :rolleyes: In the other Esso garage, I decided to be fair and ask the girl behind the counter first. She immediately deferred to the guy working with her. I asked him again what octane rating the super unleaded was and suggested that it is probably either 97 or 98 RON. "Oh no", he replied, "it's actually 125 a litre". Nice one. :rolleyes:

jlang

Yup, the days of people working in shops actually knowing anything about what they sell are long gone.

unkel

IrishRover wrote:

the guy behind the counter "explained" to me that super unleaded was actually a substitute for leaded petrol. :rolleyes:

He was right...

IrishRover

Well, I'll come back and eat humble pie if I have to, but isn't that LRP?
I know the lead used to be added to petrol to reduce pinking and knocking and I guess a higher octane fuel has the same effect, but it's not a replacement for leaded fuel surely? Isn't there some other additive in LRP that substitues for the lead that has the same effect of protecting the valve seats in older engines?

100gSoma

BrianD3 wrote:

Check out the "Statoil Ripoff" thread for some info. There is an Esso garage near mullingar that is selling super unleaded. The catch is - it's 1.25 euros per litre :eek:

BrianD3

haha... shock horror. Flash forward 3 years... 1.25 is cheap for petrol in some places. I suppose petrol was 89cent back then though.

Henry Ford III

unkel wrote:

He was right...

You sure about that? LRP was the substitute for leaded iirc.

C_Breeze

V-Power is an absolute waste of money.

Its the same 95ron as regular unleaded.

People that "feel" improvements must be imagining things. ...if anything i used it once and it 'felt' that the engine was running a lot more coarse.

I would imagine that in order to make it cleaner and more environmentally friendly, some other cahracteristics of regular petrol would have to have been substituted / removed.

testicle

I used it, and got another 30 odd miles out of the tank. Haven't bothered to use it again though, seeing as I don't pass any SHell garages on my commute.

unkel

Holy thread resurrection :eek:

Is either super unleaded or LRP still sold?

Henry Ford III wrote:

You sure about that? LRP was the substitute for leaded iirc.

My answer was a bit simplistic, IrishRover was more correct. LRP is essentially super unleaded (for high octane - 97 to 98, about the same as super leaded used to be) with an additive to protect the valve seats

endplate

Here's the reason for the V Power fuel. Would you believe it's because of Formula 1. One of the rules states since 1995 that the fuel the cars use has to be available from petrol pumps. So you can't go putting pissy fuel into F1 cars so the clever people at Shell made V-Power and Shell marketed it at a higher price and to keep Ferrari running with a high preformance fuel

mik_da_man

You reckon that F1 Cars use V-Power then???.....:rolleyes:

rowanh

Does anyone know exactly what the story is with the tax on fuel. I think it was here in a post someone mentioned tax is based on the RON level. Just with the number of high performance vehicles it would make sense for one network of petrol stations in dublin to do 98 or even 100 ron fuel. Inless it would be stupidly expensive. Id say if you got a petition together it could happen. A lot of people spend 1200 euro or so getting there cars remapped for low octane fuel, i believe there are cars sold here mapped for 98 ron fuel too, could be wrong though.

Petrol here is cheaper than almost any country in the EU, so it sucks that we cant have any decent petrol..

craichoe

Get a Diesel Instead

peasant

For those that hadn't noticed:

Between the time this thread was started and now resurrected Shell has pretty much left the country and there are hardly any Shell stations left ...never mind V-power fuel.

And for the record;
On old (prechamber) diesels V-power diesel is great stuff ...puts out more power, lowers consumption and noise and cleans the engine. (according to my own experience)

Pity you can't get it anymore ...

endplate

mik_da_man wrote:

You reckon that F1 Cars use V-Power then???.....:rolleyes:

Why do you know better?

http://www.formula1.com/insight/rulesandregs/21/5265.html

Seth Brundle

http://www2.petrobras.com.br/Esporte/ingles/formula1/petrobrasf1/apresentacao.asp

HashSlinging

V-power diesel, whereabouts do you get it, is it only in the UK.

Henry Ford III

endplate wrote:

Why do you know better?

http://www.formula1.com/insight/rulesandregs/21/5265.html

F1 cars do not run on Shell V Power 95.

HashSlinging

despite the vast amounts of technical effort spent developing a Formula One car, the fuel it runs on is surprisingly close to the composition of ordinary, commercially available petrol.

Fey!

Isn't V-Power 98Ron in Britain and 95Ron here?

mik_da_man

endplate wrote:

Why do you know better?

http://www.formula1.com/insight/rulesandregs/21/5265.html

From the site

FIA regulations state that the rules are “intended to ensure the use of fuels which are predominantly composed of compounds normally found in commercial fuels

This is definitely NOT V-Power, and as you know how F1 teams can get so much power from a non turbo restricted CC engine I'm sure they can figure out how to get a bit more power from the fuel they are allowed to use.

Mik