Welcome Forum The Drag Strip Do you use ordinary fuel or premium?

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  • #1085
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hi guys,

    Let’s debate. Here in the UK, we’ve got a few choices of fuel. There’s bog-standard 95-octane fuel, standard 98-octane “super” and the premium fuels that are 98- or 99-octane but are very highly refined with additives to improve performance and keep the engine clean etc.

    What do you usually use? Why?

    Do the premium fuels actually make a difference, or is it all marketing hype? If you feel they do make a difference, could it all be psychological?

    Personally, I used to use Shell Optimax but since I moved house my local station is BP, so I’m using BP Ultimate. I do this mainly to care for the engine a little more (I hope). I feel that it makes a little bit of difference. The car has a tiny bit more power at the low end (600 – 2000rpm) and the engine feels just a little smoother throughout the entire range. My father’s car (a Nissan Primera) reported that there was no difference in economy between ordinary 95-octane fuel and BP Ultimate. My car doesn’t have tricksy computers to tell me this (hell, it doesn’t even have ABS brakes!) so I can’t comment. The Primera is a pretty gutsy 1.8l, and my Almera is a 1.5l with economy in mind (I get about 36mpg making mainly short trips in town!).

    So, what does everyone use and why?

    Cobra

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 25 total)
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  • #17930
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Well my SVT Focus (known to you as ST-170) takes premium which is US standard 93 octane.
    I tried putting regular (83 octane) in it once and the engine did not like that at all, ended up having detonation, luckily the ford dealership fixed the damage underwarentee but they gave me a firm warning not to use anything lower than 91 octane (they ran an octane test on my gas tank, but I showed them reciets for months of buying only premium), I could of just got some bad gas since I bought it from the cheapest place I could find but I doubt it.

    #17931
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Regular here :) No sense in wasting octane.

    #17932
    GTO Man
    Moderator

    Regular unleaded.

    #17933
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Regular.. its cheaper, plus if i really need it theres always octane booster

    #17934
    Garibaldi
    Keymaster

    Regular Unleaded here too. However GTO Man and I have found that you really need to run high octane through those old muscle cars, or they’ll ping like mad. But for a daily driver Regular Unleaded, that alone is expensive enough!!! 😯

    #17935
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I work on a guys classic car collection, all large finned chrysler cars from the late 50’s with the big v8 motors, once a year he takes em down to the airport where the gas is like 110 plus octane and the cars really love that, they run real smooth and have good power. sunny.gif

    #17936
    Garibaldi
    Keymaster
    Quote:
    I work on a guys classic car collection, all large finned chrysler cars from the late 50’s with the big v8 motors, once a year he takes em down to the airport where the gas is like 110 plus octane and the cars really love that, they run real smooth and have good power. sunny.gif

    Yep, racing fuel also has 110 octane, they love it! thumbsup.gif

    #17937
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Nothing like the smell of turbo blue! Someone should make a cologne out of it jumpy.gif

    #17938
    Garibaldi
    Keymaster
    Quote:
    Nothing like the smell of turbo blue! Someone should make a cologne out of it jumpy.gif

    Yeah! I love the smell of racing fuel in the morning

    #17939
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    i use this fule:

    _38732377_petrol_150_elvis.jpg

    the green one

    #17940
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    [rant]

    Well, I pulled into BP today to top up my car. My mother was paying, since I’d done about 100 miles of running about for her. To my dismay, BP Ultimate was 103p/litre. That was compared to 96.9p/litre for ordinary 95-octane fuel. I was forced to drop back, for the first time since the start of March, to the ordinary fuel. There is no way I can justify that price for fuel. A few pennies more for a litre of good stuff, fine. But not this…

    I’m really annoyed. I had my car running so smoothly on 98-99 octane fuel. I doubt I’ll notice the difference when the 95-octane works through, but it won’t feel as comfortable knowing that it’s only standard fuel….

    [/rant]

    #17941
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    My 350z requires 91 Octane (US Standard) or better.

    I’ve always been tempted to sample the fuel at the airport, but haven’t so far. Maybe I’ll try it on my next road trip.

    #17942
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    With the modifications done to my Mustang, I have no choice but to use 93 Octane. Anything less and it will start to ping and pinging is not a good thing.

    When I go to the track I’ll put a quarter tank of 101 octane in the car.

    #17943
    Garibaldi
    Keymaster
    Quote:
    With the modifications done to my Mustang, I have no choice but to use 93 Octane. Anything less and it will start to ping and pinging is not a good thing.

    When I go to the track I’ll put a quarter tank of 101 octane in the car.

    Same with the GTX. Please rant all you want about this topic, its definitely very maddening!!!

    #17944
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Well, I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference to a 1.5l Nissan Almera. Funnily, though, since I put ordinary fuel in the fuel tank sender seems to have fixed itself. Before, it has always read 1/8th of a tank low. Now, it seems to be working again for no apparent reason. It was only 20 litres of 95-octane gone in, too – under 1/3 of a tank.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 25 total)
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