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99 Octane Tesco Fuel...............

paulsnewcuprar

Full Member
Apr 8, 2006
64
0
Has anyone else tried Tesco's new 99 Octane fuel??

I have put 2 tankfulls in my Leon Cupra R,and to be honest i am amazed at the difference in the way the car goes.Most people notice with the LCR that it starts to run out of puff as you get upto 5500-6000 revs,even after a remap(like mine),but now it just pulls round to the redline with ease,feels smoother and most importantly actually feels quicker.:clap:

These facts are obviously subjective,and may just be my mind playing tricks,but as Optimax and Ultimate are "only"98 Octane,and on the whole,more expensive than the Tesco's 99,i think it's a bit of a bargain.....................so much so that i make a 40 mile round trip to fill my car up,as it is only 1p per litre more expensive than regular 95 unleaded where i live,and i wouldn't put anything less than Super Unleaded in my car anyway.

So,has anyone else tried it,and what do you think???
 

mrcoyote

See no evil...
Jul 26, 2004
2,624
0
As Martyn so helpfully said, do a search as this has been discussed previously.

However, I tried it in my ST and it doesn't seem to run as well on that as it does on Optimax, just remember that the octane rating isn't everything in a fuel...
 

JohnL

Guest
Evo magazine did a test of various fuels, high performance and normal and found that every type of fuel was sometimes great, and sometimes rubbish, depending on when and where you fill up. They therefore reconed that the freshness of the fuel made the biggest difference.

So, if you want high performance fuel, go to a busy petrol station where they replenish their stocks on a regular basis.

IIRC high octane fuels also "go off" quicker than normal fuels (becuase they are more volatile), so the freshness is especially important if your spending extra on high performance fuels.
 

bushybeaver

V Power Love Machine
May 14, 2005
182
0
Mid Devon
JohnL said:
Evo magazine did a test of various fuels, high performance and normal and found that every type of fuel was sometimes great, and sometimes rubbish, depending on when and where you fill up. They therefore reconed that the freshness of the fuel made the biggest difference.

So, if you want high performance fuel, go to a busy petrol station where they replenish their stocks on a regular basis.

IIRC high octane fuels also "go off" quicker than normal fuels (becuase they are more volatile), so the freshness is especially important if your spending extra on high performance fuels.

Hmmm interesting John, so if you live near a fuel depot your laughing as fresh as it comes :clap:

Not convinced you will notice but i can understand the logic, I defo notice when i put Shell or BP 98 in it vs Tesco 97 super, although all this hot weather at the mo car feels slower than norm :cry:

Those peskie turbo's
 

DANNY H

Full Member
Mar 27, 2006
154
0
Ipswich
JohnL said:
Evo magazine did a test of various fuels, high performance and normal and found that every type of fuel was sometimes great, and sometimes rubbish, depending on when and where you fill up. They therefore reconed that the freshness of the fuel made the biggest difference.

So, if you want high performance fuel, go to a busy petrol station where they replenish their stocks on a regular basis.

IIRC high octane fuels also "go off" quicker than normal fuels (becuase they are more volatile), so the freshness is especially important if your spending extra on high performance fuels.


Where do you fill up john? Been trying different Shell garages to see who shifts the most optimax.
 

225

Full Member
Feb 8, 2004
1,836
0
uk
Visit site
The chim loves it and really pops and bangs on it! Optimax is also good but it really doesn't like BP ultimate for some reason.
 

storeyd

Newcastle
Jul 5, 2006
218
0
Newcastle
Does anyone know if they sell 99 octane up my neck of the woods (Newcastle). I have done a search and found the listed garages. There are none north of Yorkshire!
Maybe we don't need it up here as its always at least a few degrees colder!!!
 

JohnL

Guest
DANNY H said:
Where do you fill up john? Been trying different Shell garages to see who shifts the most optimax.

I fill up at the BP garages on the haughley bends on the A14, go past there every day on the way to and from work.

TBH I tend to find that the weather makes a much bigger difference to the performace of my car, cold weather = denser air = more air into the engine etc etc.

Quoting from evo 87 (Jan 06):

"Our first piece of advice has nothing to do with brand or octane rating. It's simply this: use a busy petrol station. During our test we suffered a number of under-performing fill-ups which we can only attribute to stale fuel."

and:
"When it came to the higher octane fuels, BP Ultimate was the stand-out performer, delivering by far the most urgent low-down urge - it was the equal of the fiendishly expensive 105-octane race fuel up to 3500rpm, and this could be felt from behind the wheel. While shell optimax failed to deliver on the dyno, just keeping ahead of the best 95s, it still impressed with it's clean, enthusiastic delivery and was the drivers choice. Tesco's part bio-ethanol 99 octane didn't deliver the low-down torque we had expected but was as strong as BP ultimate at the top end."

They tested with a Golf GTi and an M5. In one case, with BP ultimate, the golf got 203bhp and 240lb ft on the rollers, then with another batch of the same fuel it made 212bhp and 252lb ft. 9bhp and 12lb ft difference between different batches of the same fuel! Thats enough to be able to feel a difference in the cars performance.

Then again, alot of the real world feeling of performance is down to the way the power is spread across the rev range, nothing to do with actual figures, just the way it "feels".
 
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