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

sneakyST

Fey! wrote:

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

Used to be Fey but its 100 RON now

zuutroy

C_Breeze wrote:

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.

Have to disagree....My 17 year old jap-import Toyota Sera got fuel economy that easily covered the difference in price, was much more responsive and smoother to drive when using V-Power

Alun

sneakyST wrote:

Used to be Fey but its 100 RON now

According to the Shell UK website it's 99, not that it makes much difference.

Alun

HashSlinging wrote:

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

Don't think you can get it here .. I've never seen it, certainly. I've tried both that, Esso's equivalent and BP's Ultimate diesel over in the UK on long journeys and it certainly makes a difference. Purely subjectively the engine runs quieter and has a little more power, and objectively it improves fuel consumption too.

bjmotors

as far as i am aware, v-power is only ment to benefit jap cars that are meant to run on 100RON.

but sayin that, i have a jap import and it runs the same on normal 95 RON. no difference at all.

so if it really was that gud, wouldn't everybody who had a skyline, EVO etc use it?;)

Andy454

I have been looking out for premium petrol around dublin at the moment - cant believe how scarce it is - goes to show u the skin flits in this country wont even sponge an extra 5 cent for a litre of petrol!

Anyway was in germany 2 weeks ago - I noticed the shell garage had
95 Regular
95 V-Power
98 Regular and
98 V-Power

i think the latter was almost 1.69 a litre. Well I had bought the v-power a couple of times - mostly for the last banger i drove and mainly before it went for its NCT!!) I didnt notice any performance improvement - but did get the smell of rotten eggs once or twice from it!

I am looking around for that esso that sells the higher oct fuel - is it that one on monastery road? - it doesnt seem to say anything on the pump referring it to being 98 oct - i thought it was just regular!

a1117

bjmotors wrote:

as far as i am aware, v-power is only ment to benefit jap cars that are meant to run on 100RON.

but sayin that, i have a jap import and it runs the same on normal 95 RON. no difference at all.

so if it really was that gud, wouldn't everybody who had a skyline, EVO etc use it?;)

I drive a skyline, if your jap import runs OK on 95RON petrol then it's probably had the ECU re-mapped. I have to run my skyline on as close to 100RON petrol as I can get, because this is what the car is programmed to work on. If I use 95RON fuel then I am actually risking my engine. What could happen basically is the lower RON petrol could ignite on an open valve and blow the valve up through the head. Denser petrol has a higher compression ratio.

So what's the story then? Is V-Power 99RON in this country or just the same as ordinary unleaded?

zuutroy

It's 95.

lafors

zuutroy wrote:

It's 95.

Bang on, all it does is clean you engine.

Here ya go....
http://www.shell.com/static/ie-en/downloads/vpowertechleaflet.pdf

Alun

zuutroy wrote:

It's 95.

Not according to this ...

http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=uk-en&FC2=/uk-en/html/iwgen/leftnavs/zzz_lhn3_2_1.html&FC3=/uk-en/tailored/shell_for_motorists/fuels/vpower_p/vpower_p_about_ga_1602.html

If you care about your car, then Shell V-Power is the fuel for you - it's Shell's newly formulated differentiated fuel which replaces Shell Optimax.

In developing Shell V-Power we have built on the highly successful performance platform achieved with Shell Optimax. Shell V-Power is designed to provide even higher levels of performance and bring drivers further enhancements in responsiveness. The improved formulation features higher octane (99 RON), higher detergency and use of Shell's unique Friction Modification Technology, as used by the Ferrari Formula One team in its 2006 Race fuels.

Seth Brundle

VPower is different in the UK. Its 95RON here!!!

Alun

kbannon wrote:

VPower is different in the UK. Its 95RON here!!!

Why?

tuxy

a1117 wrote:

I drive a skyline, if your jap import runs OK on 95RON petrol then it's probably had the ECU re-mapped. I have to run my skyline on as close to 100RON petrol as I can get, because this is what the car is programmed to work on. If I use 95RON fuel then I am actually risking my engine. What could happen basically is the lower RON petrol could ignite on an open valve and blow the valve up through the head. Denser petrol has a higher compression ratio.

Correct and all cars sold in the Irish market are designed for 95 ron and running higher ron will not give any benefits to those cars. Not enough people run performance imports to sell enough higher ron petrol in this country and that's why it's not available.

Seth Brundle

@Alun - Dunno.
Maybe its because >95RON isn't worth the marketing here, maybe its because the majority of people don't know diddly.

Tea drinker

It says 95 octane on the feckin v-power pump.

I haven't seen anything better in dublin for a few years.

I used v-power for a good while when I changed my car, but I think now it's a waste of money and my car has better mpg on statoil. (probably anything else.)

Tea drinker

tuxy wrote:

Correct and all cars sold in the Irish market are designed for 95 ron and running higher ron will not give any benefits to those cars. Not enough people run performance imports to sell enough higher ron petrol in this country and that's why it's not available.

Wrong there tuxy, practically any modern car will give higher power when running 97-98 etc. The ignition will not be retarded due to knock - so more power. The engine adapts automatically. Higher performance engines benefit most of course.

liamfortune76

looking for vpower petrol in clonsilla (dublin 15) area! anyone know where i can get it?

pete4130

Shell on Finglas Road has Vpower and Shell on Collins avenue from Finglas towards whitehall crossraods has Vpower too. I think there is a shell garage in Beaumont that sells Vpower too but again I think its more expensive as the first 2 Shell garages I mentioned are relatively close to Tesco garage so have to keep their prices in check.