article from Times on premium fuels

freddy · 2004-10-03T00:38:17+00:00

Fuel: The wonder fuels that don't deliver The ads claim they are wonder fuels but our test was less thanimpressive. Dave Pollard reports It is, according to Shell, petrol "with a dash of Ferrari". Oras BP prefers to put it, fuel with "extra oomph". Both oil giants are pilingmassive marketing budgets into their premium fuels - Shell's Optimax and BP's Ultimate. The fuels are on sale at the same pumps as ordinary unleaded,but cost about 20p per gallon more. The companies are keen to convince youto pay. "Spinach did wonders for Popeye," says BP's latest magazineadvert, "BP Ultimate will give your car a similar boost. Perkierperformance, sharper response, smoother acceleration." Another claims thefuel "can make a 1.8 litre vehicle perform like a 2 litre". The BP websitereinforces this with pictures of cars running on Ultimate zooming past thoseusing conventional unleaded. Shell's Optimax adverts are heavily circulated on television andradio, with a voiceover by the motoring journalist Quentin Willson. Itswebsite offers similarly enticing promises: "All unleaded vehicles canbenefit from using Shell Optimax" and "Optimax can begin to improve yourvehicle's responsiveness from the moment you use it". Yet elsewhere on Shell's own website, the gloss begins to comeoff this apparent wonder fuel. Shell has included an internet message board,but rather than extolling the virtues of its product many of the messagestake a different tone: "I have tried Shell Optimax on several occasions(whole tankful) and have not noticed any difference at all," says onemessage. "I think this is just another way to get more money out of thegullible motorist." So do they make a difference? To put them to the test weenlisted the services of Superchips, based in Buckingham, which has been aleading engine tuning company since 1989. It carries out tuning work forseveral car manufacturers and racing teams but has no links with...

Oct 03, 2004 24 Replies

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Questions 21 years ago

This is true enough.

Is the engine in question actually claimed to be able to take advantage of higher octane fuels by Ford? If not, then it's an odd choice for them to offer it for test. If it is, it's odd they would given it wouldn't show any effect - and they would know themselves.

Shell say this:

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Cleaning is fair enough, but "responsiveness?" I don't know about "responsiveness", maybe higher octane has this effect?

Esso and BP, I couldn't find anything on the web, but the American BP Premium claimed to have detergents as well.

When I fill up, I can see the price and can read the octane number on the pump, no issues there for me, but the forecourt doesn't say "This makes your engine produce more power" and I dunno where this has been said or by who.

I don't read newspapers at all often so, fair enough, maybe they're packed with adverts making false claims?

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Dave Plowman (News) 21 years ago

If it were, they'd recommend the use of 98 octane. And very few cars do. Knock sensors only retard the ignition from the optimum setting when they detect pinking - they don't advance it until it happens.

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dojj 21 years ago

why didn't they use a focus rs then?

turbo'd engines tend to use the better fuel for some reason

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Depresion 21 years ago

That's because the air/fuel mix is a lot hotter when it's forced into the engine than on a normally aspirated engine making it closer to spontaneous combustion.

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dojj 21 years ago

so, once again, why use an engine that doesn't need the better fuel? it's the same story over and over again journalists make the story fit what they've written rather than write what the results are

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