To Optimax Or Not Optimax That Is The Question

[SyCelicaGT]

Hi All,

I was just reading EVO magazine in my lunch break today, and came across a very interesting article where they take a new Golf GTI and M5 and run dyno tests using different makes & grades of fuels to try and answer the age old question of which fuel is best.

The winner for me is quite clear cut: BP Ultimate it was on a par BHP & Torque wise with 105 RON race fuel. Optimax did not do very well at all although they did mention it has the best engine cleaning properties out of all the fuels. Tesco's 99 RON did very well being just behind the BP ultimate throughout the rev range. There was quite a substantial differance between 95 RON & higher octane fuels such as the Optimax and alike.

So I guess this answers the question we all sort of knew that the higher RON fuels trully do make a differance to performance with BP ultimate being the suprising winner.

As a foot note to these results they did say that the fresher the fuel the better the performance so there main recommendation is to use a garage with the highest possable turnover of cars to insure the fuel you are putting in your car is as fresh as possable as this seems to be the main factor in how well the fuels performed.

Have a read it is quite interesting, especially the BHP & Torque curves for the fuels in the Golf, there are some drastic differances with BP ulimate kicking *****!

[Leeky]

BP Ultimate it was on a par BHP & Torque wise with  105 RON race fuel

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What the !?

I dunno how they tested the fuels but thats just not possible. BP Ultimate is only 97ron. If the figures were the same then it will just be that the cars ECU's couldn't map properly to the race fuel as there is a difference of 8ron between the two.

I used to use Optimax when i had my last GT4 and tried BP Ultimate and noticed the car didnt run as well.

Now i've got another GT4 i've started to use Tesco 99 ron and its by far the best fuel i've used in the UK. Response is improved and the car runs much more happy now

[GT4 BOOSTER]

i am fuming you have tescos 99 ron , and up here we dont - grrrrrr

[Leeky]

i am fuming you have tescos 99 ron , and up here we dont - grrrrrr

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Sorry man, i doubt you'll have to wait very long for the good stuff

[Bibbs]

i am fuming you have tescos 99 ron , and up here we dont - grrrrrr

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Sorry man, i doubt you'll have to wait very long for the good stuff

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They will be waiting a while .. the reason we get it and it's so cheap is that the Tesco petrol plant is on the Thames river apparently ..

So it doesn't take long for it to be driven to Reading in a tanker :D

[Leeky]

Ahhhhh cool :D

[SyCelicaGT]

I would think the fact that the tank for tesco's fuel is near by would help the fuel be fresh and that Tesco's would have some of the highest turn over of cars too. All helps.

I always buy Optimax or Ultimate, I have not tried the Tesco's 99RON in the celica just yet but my flat mate says it is the dog nads!

Don't shoot the messenger everyone, I just though the article was quite impartial and very informative so I though I would make you aware of the results, I am sure the results would vary quite wildly depending on car, plus the golf had an on board managment system capable of adapting the engine for differnet fuels.

Hay Leeky, do you know Cameron Young? Think I remeber him saying he had a mate with a stupidly fast GT4 would that be you by chance?

[mikeb]

The only thing that test proves is how the cars that they used for the test (Golf GTI and M5) handle the different fuels. Those are both brand new cars that will have ECUs programmed to take advantage of high octane fuels, and higher CRs than older cars. How other cars handle them can't really be concluded from those tests.

Maybe (most likely) the BP produced the same output figures as the race fuel because the cars were never designed (mechanically and electronically) to make the most of 105 RON fuel.

I'm not saying the test was useless, just that the results don't mean that much for anyone who doesn't drive an M5 or a Golf GTI.

[SyCelicaGT]

I would agree Mike, it is dependant on the car as every engine is different. Certainly I try and go for Optimax most of the time as I always belived it was the best national fuel (I have not tried Tesco yet so I can not comment). The test may not conclude comprehensivly which super fuel to go for but it does cement what we all knew, that higher RON fuels trully do make a differance to performance, in the specific case of the Golf GTI it made about 20BHP differance low in the rev range which is a huge gain in my eyes!

As I said before I just thought it was an interesting read, and I was trying to sum up some of the results on the lower powered car.

[Jones~32]

Maybe (most likely) the BP produced the same output figures as the race fuel because the cars were never designed (mechanically and electronically) to make the most of 105 RON fuel.

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IMO thats spot on

I can't see car manufacturers setting up cars to make use of that higher octane fuel...

I would think that race fuel, as it states in its name, is for race engines??? :P

[IanGT]

I filled up with tesco 99ron monday for the first time. Soooo much better than optimax and Ultimate in my opinion feels so much quicker and smoother through out the revs. Not going back to optimax ever.

[Bibbs]

anything over 100 RON won even be picked up by us import guys ..

and you don't "gain" BHP .. you just don't lose as many as you do on 95 RON ;)

[Leeky]

Hay Leeky, do you know Cameron Young? Think I remeber him saying he had a mate with a stupidly fast GT4 would that be you by chance?

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haha yeah me and Cameron go way back. He was probably talking about my last GT4 which was about 300 ponies and had the full Castrol Sega Rally graphics on it.

Now i come to think of it he has mentioned your car to me a few times. Also i think i've seen you driving around reading before.

What do you think of his new GTO? I havent seen it yet, but me and him went down the jap auctions before he got it to try to find one and he almost crashed his Impreza in the Mcdonalds drive thru

Will all have to meet up for a beer and talk celica

[SyCelicaGT]

Yeah his new GTO is very nice, goes well looks good, loads of gadgets! But the alloys are definatly not to my personal taste. White 17's on such a big black car looks OK but is crying out for a set of 19's to fill the arches but that is alot of cash to part with for alloys!

I think Cam was on about going to the Reading Madjeski meet next Tuesday, I have been trying to go for about a year now but something has always come up to stop me, but I have next week off work so I was gonna try and make it this time. He was saying we should all go down in convoy. With any luck we will meet then.

It was the GT4 with the graphics which he was discribing to me, it sounds v.fast from what he was telling me. Shame it is no longer in your possesion, why have you changed GT4?

[Leeky]

Long story - Unfortunately the Castrol graphic'd one met head on with a golf at the end of 2003 :(

I then decided to stop buying (and breaking) sports cars and bought a Lexus LS400. Great car but a little boring and when i drove it I looked like i was borrowing my dads car

So i decided to get a UK Supra TT as i thought it would be a step up from the GT4 (326stock vs 255stock), but after taking it to the Nurburgring i decided i wanted to have something more fun so i got an import non turbo white supra with the intention of dumping the engine for a GT4 engine and creating a replica of the Castrol Tom's touring car.

Time and money needed was much more than i origianlly thought it was going to take so i swapped the white supra for a Lotus Esprit Turbo which i have now. (or rather dont have as its been at the garage since september)

And about a month or two ago i started looking for a car for the Nurburgring trip this coming easter. The Lotus only has 2 seats and there is 4 of us going so i was looking at something 4wd with about 300bhp.

My budget was £3500 max and i was looking at an Audi A8 4.2 V8 Quattro but they are high mileage for that money and too big really. But then i looking on eBay one night and saw this white st205 just like my old one and it was going for a stupid low price. So i bought it and here i am with it now

I have big plans for this car, its going to be a monster in comparision to the last GT4 i owned.

About the Reading meet, i dont think its actually happening :( I was speaking to Lord_Ed last night and he was telling me that nothing seems to have been arranged. But whatever happens we will be doing somthing next week as most of us are off work.

[SyCelicaGT]

Sounds like you have a lot of time for your cars, far play on the new GT4, I am envous of the price you got it for, I wanted to upgrade to a white GT4 then transplant most of the parts off the GT, but I thought the extra expense did not justify it (just yet, come insurance renewal time it maybe different).

Even if the meet doesn't happen then hopefully you can stop by mine & Cam's place next week with the GT4 so I can have a perv! I really want to have a ride in one so I can see if it is worth me upgradeing.

[Leeky]

I really want to have a ride in one so I can see if it is worth me upgradeing.

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No probs, but wait for me to get the new exhaust on first The one on at the moment has a big hole in it. But yeah sure i'll pop round and we'll go for a spin. I haven't seen cams place yet since he moved.

[GT4 BOOSTER]

upgrade from a gt , oh i dont think it will take you long to decide mate , thats for certain

[Pumba_Levin]

Sorry to interrupt you guys with the interesting topic above. But, back to the main point, is Shell optimax good enough to compare with BP Ultimate and Tesco 99 RON fuel? I travelled 40 miles to nearest Shell Station everytime to get Optimax for my Gen 6. The place I stayed got BP and Tesco just 2 minutes drive from my house!

In my point of view, when I was driving my last Levin supercharger, there is one time that I got no choice but to put in the BP Ultimate from the motorway services. The effect was so smooth and quiet and yet powerful compare to Optimax.

Can someone point out which is the best performance fuel now in UK? Personnally I prefer Optimax, but it good for me to make a good change. thanks

[GT4 BOOSTER]

i'd use tescos 99 ron if i could get it - forget the others - its all about ron at the end of the day especially for imports

[mikeb]

I got no choice but to put in the BP Ultimate from the motorway services.  The effect was so smooth and quiet and yet powerful compare to Optimax.

.....Personnally I prefer Optimax, but it good for me to make a good change.  thanks

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Based on your first statement, why do you prefer optimax?

[Pumba_Levin]

I got no choice but to put in the BP Ultimate from the motorway services.  The effect was so smooth and quiet and yet powerful compare to Optimax.

.....Personnally I prefer Optimax, but it good for me to make a good change.  thanks

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Based on your first statement, why do you prefer optimax?

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Think that Optimax is cheaper than BP Ultimate, higher RON than Ultimate, and the best cleaning agent for engine. I am confused now, which one is better in terms of performance...... I think I should try others as well. Having saying that, are the better performance fuel do any good to engine campared with Optimax?

Thanks for the commends guys. ;)

[SyCelicaGT]

Hay Puma,

As stated in the above conversation, BP Ultimate seemed to work best for the Golf GTI, infact it was quite a differance on the EVO test, but we were saying that this does not mean that it is nessaserily better for your Celica as most are jap imports and need as close to 100 RON as you can get (Tesco's 99RON), to get the most from the engine. (mine is UK spec)

However, I hardly notice any reasonabale differance between Shell and optimax fuels when I put them in, but I do notice a big differance between 95RON fuels and the super fuels, and the fuel consuption when I put in a super fuel is WAY beter. I have been trying to measure fuel consumption this year, by religiously filling the car up totally from when the fuel light starts to come on then reset the temp milage meter. I have noticed about quite a few miles extra every time I use one of the super fuels in my car usually about 280-320 miles for super fuel and about 250-280 on normal 95ROn so in my eyes it does not really matter what fuel you use as long as it is a higher RON fuel than 95 as you get better economy (thus justifying the added expense of the fuel) and you get slightly better performance from the car. Everyones a winner!

However I am yet to try Tesco's fuel which I will use next week when I run out of the usual BP Ultimate I have in the car at the moment. I am expecting big things, from all the praise I have heard!