Super Unleaded... Like Night And Day.

Dani_B19

Dani_B19

Audi-sports own special child.
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Well the petrol light came on the other day and i was near my local shell garage, so thought might aswell go there. Popped in, went togo get the normal 95 Ron unleaded but then a big red sticker caught my eye, thought oow shiney, looked over and it was shell's 99 Ron super unleaded, why not, so picked the nozzle up and chucked 25 quid in the tank.

Paid and off i went, at first i thought well whats the difference but after a few mile the car had obviously picked up the change in fuel and wow, its like a new car seriously.

I always thought the s3 was missing something, felt a bit slack off boost etc but now, its just sooo much smoother and powerful, its got constant power even off boost and well when the boost kicks in its like an animal. Raced a 150 cdti astra last night, he even got a head start as i didnt realise we were racing haha and by the time i got through first and second i was 3 car lengths and off haha and only just blinked, honestly i cant tell you what its done for the car, new MAF and i think itll be running better than when it left the factory, apart from the knocking suspension that is (not my fault, was a stupid b*tch who couldnt drive).
 
I've never put standard unleaded in any of my cars! You can noticce a difference between 97 octane and Tesco 99 aswell!
 
We have used the diesel version of vpower in our A4 and that makes a nice difference to the performance.
 
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hmmm, i used super for a few months, was sure i noticed a difference then had a day where i couldnt be a**ed to make the 10 mile journey to the Shell station....went back to 95 unleaded and never noticed a drop in power...just my thoughts
 
It takes a fair few miles of one or the other for an effect to take place. You probably still had diluted super unleaded in there!

If you don't want to notice it, then you won't!
 
I always use V power, not sure how much of a difference it makes but I figure its best to run the octain fuel that the car was designed to run on!
 
Shell V-Power all the way for me. tried Tesco's 99RON and didnt like it. didnt feel the same and i seemed to get worse MPG than with the 99RON V-Power. and the best bit about it is, my local Shell garage is one of cheapest about....happy days :o.k:
 
I've noticed V Power does make a difference in the S3. Not sure if it would in an A3 150bhp/180bhp motor? I don't think V Power made any difference to my 1.8T A4 (150bhp) for example.

My MG runs on V Power aswell and loves it. It was recommended to me when I had the engine work done. Prior to the Stage 2 engine V Power would've made no difference I reckon.
 
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There used to be a shell garage a few hundred yards from where I live but it closed down a few years ago. Ever since i've been using sub standard Total 97RON fuel. Only time my S3 has been on the good stuff was when I went to the ring and used the Shell 100RON stuff you can get in Europe.
 
Well tim i always thought i was b***ocks about super unleaded but after trying it i can say over normal unleaded it does on my car make a difference, a very big one.
 
audi upgrades
Anyone remember the test that 5th Gear did?
Shell V-Power (then called Optimax) came out best ahead of BP Ultimate and a regular supermarket fuel.
They put some in a normal shopping-trolley hatchback (don't remember what the car was), a Golf GTi and an Impreza Turbo.

None of the three fuels made any difference to the shopping-trolley hatchback (as it's not designed for higher octane and can't make use of it).

With the Golf GTi there was a slight increase in BHP & torque with the BP Ultimate and slightly more with the Optimax.

In the Scoob there was a significant increase in BHP and torque. I think they got an extra 8 bhp and 10 'torques' with the Optimax. The BP wasn't quite so good but still an improvement over the regular supermarket fuel.

True story.
 
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JS1500 said:
Anyone remember the test that 5th Gear did?
Shell V-Power (then called Optimax) came out best ahead of BP Ultimate and a regular supermarket fuel.
They put some in a normal shopping-trolley hatchback (don't remember what the car was), a Golf GTi and an Impreza Turbo.

None of the three fuels made any difference to the shopping-trolley hatchback (as it's not designed for higher octane and can't make use of it).

With the Golf GTi there was a slight increase in BHP & torque with the BP Ultimate and slightly more with the Optimax.

In the Scoob there was a significant increase in BHP and torque. I think they got an extra 8 bhp and 10 'torques' with the Optimax. The BP wasn't quite so good but still an improvement over the regular supermarket fuel.

True story.
Click to expand...

Yeah remember watching that a few years back.
 
I also always use Super unleaded, 99 octane if I can get it. Not only do I think it provides better power delivery, it provides a cleaner burn which is ultimately better for the lump under the bonnet :)
 
JS1500 said:
Anyone remember the test that 5th Gear did?
Shell V-Power (then called Optimax) came out best ahead of BP Ultimate and a regular supermarket fuel.
They put some in a normal shopping-trolley hatchback (don't remember what the car was), a Golf GTi and an Impreza Turbo.

None of the three fuels made any difference to the shopping-trolley hatchback (as it's not designed for higher octane and can't make use of it).

With the Golf GTi there was a slight increase in BHP & torque with the BP Ultimate and slightly more with the Optimax.

In the Scoob there was a significant increase in BHP and torque. I think they got an extra 8 bhp and 10 'torques' with the Optimax. The BP wasn't quite so good but still an improvement over the regular supermarket fuel.

True story.
Click to expand...

I remember this im glad someone else does ! i always use v power... wont put anything else in our skyline. I once had to use normal super unleaded in my impreza and it ran like a bag of nails... I have never in the 12 years i have been driving used just normal unleaded fuel and i never would. If you really enjoy your car and driving you would for sure tell the difference with the better fuel :)
 
i remember that. the shopping trolley was a 1.2 Clio....i saw the repeat a few wks back on DAVE....was ripping our lass because she drives a clio....and we do use it for the shopping...haha.
if i remember rightly, they had to completely drain the fuel lines and reset the ecu for the car to make use of the higher octain right away.
for us mere peasants, we will have to wait a while for the diluted fuel to pass through the fuel lines and for the ecu to adapt. Id say you will notice it more on your second full tank.
for the Extra few quid per full tank, the V-Power is the best Mod going
 
JS1500 said:
Anyone remember the test that 5th Gear did?
Shell V-Power (then called Optimax) came out best ahead of BP Ultimate and a regular supermarket fuel.
Click to expand...

Back then the fuels were different than they are now though. Tesco & BP Ultimate were both 97 octane, and Optimax was 98 octane.

Now, Shell V Power & Tesco super are both 99 whilst BP remains at 97...

Not the same fuel for Shell and Tesco so I'm inclined to say that test is not really applicable now...
 
When i first got my TQS i was thinking about a remmap by a company called More - BHP... i got into a bit of an email chat with the lad that runs it and said to run it on vPower for a while before going for the map and then to always run it on that stuff as the map would take advantage of the higher octane...... as such going back to regular unleaded the ecu would pull all the settings back down so as to avoid any damage to the engine... almost if you like putting the car into limp mode... have those of you that notice the biggest difference had your engines mapped ??? i never got round to getting mine done due to the lack of extra horses available to the TQS,,,, that said i've noticed in another thread on here that More-BHP are offering a map for £100 now on Ebay and he really seemed to know what he was talking about and has been going for a few years now... maybe i might take the plunge now and get those extra 20 ponies
 
99ron ftw. I use it as Ive set revo to run quite aggressive timing settings.
 
Always used V-Power since day one of ownership.....Worth the extra few quid a tank i say :)

Ive got a V-Power card now aswell....So i should, Maybe cheaper for me to buy a share in my nearest Shell station.:racer:
 
Dani_B19 said:
Well the petrol light came on the other day and i was near my local shell garage, so thought might aswell go there. Popped in, went togo get the normal 95 Ron unleaded but then a big red sticker caught my eye, thought oow shiney, looked over and it was shell's 99 Ron super unleaded, why not, so picked the nozzle up and chucked 25 quid in the tank.

Paid and off i went, at first i thought well whats the difference but after a few mile the car had obviously picked up the change in fuel and wow, its like a new car seriously.

I always thought the s3 was missing something, felt a bit slack off boost etc but now, its just sooo much smoother and powerful, its got constant power even off boost and well when the boost kicks in its like an animal. Raced a 150 cdti astra last night, he even got a head start as i didnt realise we were racing haha and by the time i got through first and second i was 3 car lengths and off haha and only just blinked, honestly i cant tell you what its done for the car, new MAF and i think itll be running better than when it left the factory, apart from the knocking suspension that is (not my fault, was a stupid b*tch who couldnt drive).
Click to expand...


Dani, nice to see a positive post from you !!:icon_thumright:

You will find you get more miles per gallon / litre too. Win Win:racer:
 
Haha a know mark, got to look up, got the back end of the car sorted, looks like a new car, had it all colour coded, honestly it looks amazing, im so in love with the car again, maybe getting some new alloys too.

Having the front end inspected tomorrow and then i can get on with fixing it at last, got all the parts nearly too :)
 
Very few BP do 102 octain, the price is £2.45 /litter there is one on a406. but they stop during the cold season, something related to how it can't be maintained at low temp. look it up on thier website. some optimisic figures, they claim up to 20BHP gain on high end turbo engines.
 
MintyS3 said:
99ron ftw. I use it as Ive set revo to run quite aggressive timing settings.
Click to expand...

Are you using a SPS3 for the timing settings??
I just run the timing as standard off the map, with the boost at 9, mate spoke to a bloke at revo and said leave the timing alone. How are you running yours
 
In my old car, a 1.4 polo, I would fill up with whatever was the cheapest and sometimes normal shell fuel, never v power as it was not justified in such a small engine.

In my a3 diesel i've mainly been filling up with tesco fuel as its the closest station and have just run with it but went to fill up at shell today to try vpower, however they didn't do diesel vpower so just filled up with the regular stuff.

Have to say power delivery is much smoother, most improved off boost and seems to rev free-er throughout the rev range too.

Will have to make the trip to shell from now on, but will be interesting to see if I notice any difference when I go to fill up with supermarket fuel too.

p.s there's a bp garage on egham hill a30 that sells the £2.50 a litre unleaded, convenient for the maranello garage opposite lol
 
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My Passat TDI averages around 40mpg, with the V-Power diesel, I managed almost 45mpg, was quite suprised, but it's 10p more extra per litre... the extra miles I get probably justifies the cost, but around town, I just use any diesel... it's more effective for long runs on the motorway than town driving.
 
It really does depend on what kind of car you're running IMO. In all my old company cars, (mostly 1.6 Focus, Astra's etc) which were gutless anyway, the extra money for premium fuels was wasted because it made no difference to how the car drove and I didn't get noticeably more miles from a tank full.

I tried standard and premium fuels in the S3 and it does seem to run a lot smoother on the higher RON stuff. Can't say I noticed any difference between BP Ultimate, Shell V-power or Tesco's though.
 
I read something that said about desiels not having any reaction to higher octane fuel like petrols do. It was saying that the desiel works by getting as much fuel as possible in.
 
I always use Shell V-Power. Even with my previous car (1.25 Fiesta Zetec - I was saving money, OK?!) I could tell the difference. Just frees-up the car. Never use anything else now unless I'm really stuck.
 
I have been using V Power since I have had the S3, it just makes the car feel more responsive and as I do a lot of miles, I get ALOT better mpg off it, so the cost is justified for me, plus i get a fancy v power card in my wallet too :)
 
nilz18t said:
plus i get a fancy v power card in my wallet too :)
Click to expand...

HAHA dont you just love pulling that red card out and as others stare with their inferior yellow shell drivers cards (no offence to who ever has it here) :p heheh

Im saving my points to buy that ferrari bike!! i think its 5000 points or something along those lines.
 
Nothing but V-power since I bought mine - Shell even sent me a new "V-Power Club" card. My friends don't seem to care though.
 
V power to make a v dip in your wallet if you ask me. top gear should take most of you lot on a blind survey and fill your tanks and see if you can tell the difference WITHOUT knowing what is in the tank. In fact get your wives to fill up of their choice and not to tell you and see if you can tell.

The only thing I believe about v power is prolong use keeps your engine generally clean on the inside.
 
audi upgrades
so how do you get one of these V-Power cards.....i feel inferior now with just my tatty yellow card :faint:
 
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