Petrol prices: v power to normal unleaded?

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So obviously petrol prices have risen yet again! I was wondering if anyone has reverted back to normal unleaded due to the price of v power or similar. If so have they noticed a reduction in power or mpg?
I'm just wondering if the pros of v power are starting to be outweighed by the high prices.

Up for discussion..... :ermm:
 
I think the vat increase should equate to £2 per tank more, hardly the end of the world... of course to drop down to premium unleaded is a bigger saving, but I'd still stick the good stuff in to maximise my performance. Surely the idea of owning an S3, especially one that's been remapped, is to have the best performance possible?
 
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I used 95 in emergencies never noticed any difference.


Let's not forget that there is also alot of marketing and propaganda....
 
I agree Jo Jo that £2 is hardly going to break the bank however v power has also gone up an additional 4p here in Coventry before the vat increase. Again not going to break the bank BUT then it's not exactly cheap filling up the tank in the first place especially when it's costing nearly £70 to fill up in the first place.
With regards to performance from the extra RON I'm just thinking how much I use the "extra" power in normal day to day driving to work and back.
 
im sticking with my 99 momentum, its not much extra overall as only 2p per litre more will cost £1.20 on a 60 litre tank, if you remember exactly how much you used to spend then see how much you spend now, be carefull of garages stinging you, this happened in a local garage by me where they were fixing the tank so you were gettin around say £9.00 worth of fuel for £10 as they were fixing the clocks that spin round. only way to tell is on a full tank though but should only be about £2 like jojo said

plus its not all about extra bhp its actually alot better for the engine and reduces the risk of detonation compared to 95 so thats the main reason i use it, couldnt really tell if i had more power but mpg was better for me even after my MRC remap
 
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I used V-Power when I first bought my S3 about 3.5 years ago, when we had the last major price hike I knocked it on the head and went to 'normal' fuel.

Never noticed any difference tbh, I do 350 miles a week mostly motorway, i'm not wasting money on 'super fuel' lol
 
Ian W said:
I used V-Power when I first bought my S3 about 3.5 years ago, when we had the last major price hike I knocked it on the head and went to 'normal' fuel.

Never noticed any difference tbh, I do 350 miles a week mostly motorway, i'm not wasting money on 'super fuel' lol
Click to expand...

agree
 
It really depends on the car, what tuning its had, and how its driven.

A standard car wont care either way, and will run happily on either, with perhaps a small loss of performance.

If your car has been remapped however you need to be very careful, especially if its an aggressive map, as often the ignition timing will be very advanced and utilising all of the 98octane fuels additional anti knock properties, if you drop in some 95 then you run the risk of engine damage, if not from detonation, then from higher EGT's caused by the now retarded ignition timing.

I tend to use Tesco 99, although perhaps given that its a standard car i probably shouldnt bother. That said, i filled up at a petrol station i dont normally use at christmas when visiting family, and nearly fell over when i noticed they'd just charged me £1.32 per litre for V-Power! I tanked up just before the vat increase at my local tesco, and iirc it was 1.27 a litre.
 
aragorn said:
It really depends on the car, what tuning its had, and how its driven.

A standard car wont care either way, and will run happily on either, with perhaps a small loss of performance.

If your car has been remapped however you need to be very careful, especially if its an aggressive map, as often the ignition timing will be very advanced and utilising all of the 98octane fuels additional anti knock properties, if you drop in some 95 then you run the risk of engine damage, if not from detonation, then from higher EGT's caused by the now retarded ignition timing.

I tend to use Tesco 99, although perhaps given that its a standard car i probably shouldnt bother. That said, i filled up at a petrol station i dont normally use at christmas when visiting family, and nearly fell over when i noticed they'd just charged me £1.32 per litre for V-Power! I tanked up just before the vat increase at my local tesco, and iirc it was 1.27 a litre.
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Revo...map I have

Knock?
 
Knock... pre-ignition, pinking... etc... very bad for engines, can cause them to melt..

Engine knocking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Revo can be adjusted to suit petrol grade... if its de-tuned for 95 octane (as any good tuner would do) then bunging 98/99 octane in would not be that different... if it was tuned to take 98/99 though putting 95 octane in (a tank or so) would send the ECU mental and you would prob see it pulling quite a bit of timing under load... the performance deficit would be more noticeable as the ECU doesn't know the octane of the fuel you are using and will try to use the maps ignition advance and boost request... the lower octane fuel would induice knock and the ECU will pull the timing back... this will make the car feel like its holding back or feel 'jerky'

If you plan to run 95 octane on a remapped car then it would be worth while getting the thing logged and getting the timing backed out a bit...

<tuffty/>
 
Dont the knock sensors pull the timing if any knock if found??
Its costing me £78 a week now to keep up my V power adiction... not sure how long it can hold out,
 
Went back to "normal" unleaded months ago, absolutely no perceivable difference to the cars performance, but a noticable diffence in the wallet :w00t: cost of fuel has just got to mad mad mad levels
 
For the £3 or so a week extra i will try and have a softer foot on boring runs to the shops or work...
Safe opening the taps for weekend fun.
 
momentum 99 ftw. cheapier then V-power but i get the same MPG and feel of power
 
V-Power all the way regardless for me... I am not likely to be getting rid of the S3 anytime soon and the old girl will become less of a daily and more of an off peak driver for me once I sort my Mk2 Golf out... I use Shell 95 in the Golf normally... first time I use Tesco 95 as I was in need of some fuel and they were the only one close, the old girl nearly lets me down... granted her age is starting to show but I was mildly distrusting of super market fuel before (despite running Tesco 99 for a spell in the S3)... not sure I care for it now tbh..

<tuffty/>
 
What's the story on the mk2 ? A new build thread I can look at??
 
S3 Paul said:
What's the story on the mk2 ? A new build thread I can look at??
Click to expand...

lol... sadly no... not yet at least...
20100701_IMG_6787.jpg


<tuffty/>
 
I cant believe the price of V Power, but I am going to stick to it for now as I dont want the car to mess up with the change to normal unleaded.

Paid 130.9 the other day before the hike!!!

Will probably be paying 138.9ish this week, not happy about it but what can we do?
 
I trump you on that one, my Clio 1149cc and 60hp. Boom. Too fast for this forum.

Does tesco 99 actually have that octane rating? I know there is additives for mpg etc, is it all good and worthwhile getting over v-power, because shell stuff might not be all it's cracked up to be
 
From what I have heard Tesco 99 (and other super market fuels) is full of additives/bio fuel to make it a higher octane and apparently has been known to degrade in the tanks... not that Shell hasn't had issues in the past but I believe that V-Power is produced at 99 octane not messed about with to 'boost' the octane...

This what I have heard of course, I have no evidence to support it...

<tuffty/>
 
What octane is the shell now? I have been getting it for a while and it used to be called shell 99 or something like that, now they dropped the 99 has the octane also dropped?
 
V power for the last 5 years, just fill her up and pay if I worried about the price id just get upset lol its like gas prices you need it so it is what it is :(
 
vpower used to be 98 and more recently changed to 99.

i use whatever is convenient most of the time but going for my tesco momentum when i can as it was mapped on that at r-tech.
 
question for tuffty & aragon, I have a revo sps switch, how can I adjust the map to suit ron 95. I can "adjust" boost, timing & air/fuel or switch back to standard map (I don't know if 95 is suitable for the standard S3 map

I just do cruising motorway miles so no enthusiastic driving
 
finesse said:
question for tuffty & aragon, I have a revo sps switch, how can I adjust the map to suit ron 95. I can "adjust" boost, timing & air/fuel or switch back to standard map (I don't know if 95 is suitable for the standard S3 map

I just do cruising motorway miles so no enthusiastic driving
Click to expand...

Bill would be the one to answer this one mate... I have found this though...
http://www.dialynx.co.uk/sps.pdf

Suggests timing set to 0 for 95 ron...

<tuffty/>
 
I've personally never had a problem using Tesco fuels, but then, the missus does drive the car and Full Throttle doesnt happen particularly often.

ALL fuels degrade over time, and super unleaded (irrespective of its source) degrades quicker than regular unleaded anyway. Its not like its in the tank for long though, i recon at most the car goes about 2 weeks before needing filled up.

Some people slate supermarket petrol, but for me, its likely got a much higher turnover than buying it from a smaller garage, simply due to the volumes used, as such its likely to be fresh petrol your buying, rather than stuff thats sat in their tanks for weeks or months. All petrol contains additives and suchlike, and lets face it, we're not chemical engineers, so we've really no grounds to comment one way or another on wether they're good or bad.

Sure, we've all heard stories where someones filled up at XYZ supermarket and the car ran like crap afterwards, but i've heard the same things about Esso, BP, Shell etc so its all just the same. Bad fuel is bad fuel, and imo your no more likely to get it from a supermarket than a "normal" garage. I'd much rather fill up at my local tesco, than at the tiny shell garage i pass on the way there that charges £1.40 a litre for V power, because its likely that no-one ever buys VPower from there given its absolutely mental pricing, and so the stuff in the tanks will be ancient.
 
aragorn said:
I've personally never had a problem using Tesco fuels, but then, the missus does drive the car and Full Throttle doesnt happen particularly often.

ALL fuels degrade over time, and super unleaded (irrespective of its source) degrades quicker than regular unleaded anyway. Its not like its in the tank for long though, i recon at most the car goes about 2 weeks before needing filled up.

Some people slate supermarket petrol, but for me, its likely got a much higher turnover than buying it from a smaller garage, simply due to the volumes used, as such its likely to be fresh petrol your buying, rather than stuff thats sat in their tanks for weeks or months. All petrol contains additives and suchlike, and lets face it, we're not chemical engineers, so we've really no grounds to comment one way or another on wether they're good or bad.

Sure, we've all heard stories where someones filled up at XYZ supermarket and the car ran like crap afterwards, but i've heard the same things about Esso, BP, Shell etc so its all just the same. Bad fuel is bad fuel, and imo your no more likely to get it from a supermarket than a "normal" garage. I'd much rather fill up at my local tesco, than at the tiny shell garage i pass on the way there that charges £1.40 a litre for V power, because its likely that no-one ever buys VPower from there given its absolutely mental pricing, and so the stuff in the tanks will be ancient.
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i like ur thinking. That kinda thing never crossed my mind before.
 
Well - these may be of interest to you guys. I looked into this at depth a while ago as was interested.

Spec sheet - Momentum 99: Specifications - Product Benefits - MOMENTUM99 - Tesco.com

I can't find a similar spec sheet for V Power. V Power is NOT the LM24 fuel that you can find a sheet for on the web.

BP Ultiamte is only 97 RON IIRC - thus, crap. The 102 stuff was pretty pokey mind.
 
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before everyone suggests that V-power is a complete waste of time, I'd suggest you look at the overall running cost per mile of V power and normal 95 RON fuel.

In my A3, I tend to average around 2MPG better when run on V-power compared to standard unleaded. Tried and tested many times over an average week

2mpg increase on 30mpg is about 6.7%, and V power certainly doesn't cost 6.7% more than regular Fuel, probably about 5% extra. So technically, it could be CHEAPER to run on V-power. it is for me. and I certainly won't be changing to normal *****!
 
Prawn said:
30mpg is about 6.7%, and V power certainly doesn't cost 6.7% more than regular Fuel, probably about 5% extra. So technically, it could be CHEAPER to run on V-power. it is for me. and I certainly won't be changing to normal *****!
Click to expand...

Not to mention the fact it keeps the injectors cleaner and more free from deposits. Also helps prevent det, I agree.

I often use Momentum 99 to be fair, depends on what is closest... I think it's equally as good myself.
 
aragorn said:
...lets face it, we're not chemical engineers...
Click to expand...

Well I have to own up to a Masters in Chemical Engineering from The University of Nottingham in 1996 :p - although I've never actually worked as one!

Back on subject - I use Momentum as I've got 2 Tescos within 4 miles and the whilst the Shell garage is closer, it has the most expensive petrol in the area by a considerable margin so I never go there. I stick VPower in it if I'm visiting my mum as I go past the very cheap Shell station on the A1 just south of Scotch Corner.

In terms of the increased costs - I'm just driving a bit slower these days. e.g. drive up to mums I'll stick the cruise on 70mph rather than 75mph. OK, it takes me 20 minutes longer to get there, but I'm getting over 35mpg rather than the 32mpg I used to get.
 
V-Power only. Better MPG with it so it works out the same. Oh and it is mapped specifically for it.
 
Well supermarket fuels have got themselves a bad reputation from times gone by... when it really was *****... but nowadays id be very surprised if it actually is any different.

I now usually buy fuel ethically, bit gay, but id rather support a local garage than a supermarket or the oil monster BP. I never buy shell because we do not have a shell filling station anywhere near in north devon lol, but I dont think I would anyway. Only because it has a massive price tag, doesnt make it any better. Plus the southwest on average pays the highest price for fuel in the country. Paid 128p for 95 last night.
 
s3dave said:
Just looked at my APR map literature and it says 102 ron only on stage 2 ??im guessing it must be the American equivalent?
Click to expand...

America tends to quote AKI numbers, which are usually lower than the UK RON rating. 95 RON petrol is 90-91 "octane" in the US.

102RON is the same scale as the UK stuff, but i've never heard of it being available here, other than the stuff BP trialled for a very short time.
 
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