BP Ultimate 102
Discussion
vesuvius996 said:
On the way to Brands from Central London, I think?
Surely that can't be the thinking! How many people would drive through central London to Brands? A tiny proportion of the target audience I'd think.
IMHO they'd be better off targetting their service stations near the tracks.
I think you're all missing the point. This isn't aimed at road users (although I'm sure some people will put it in their tank for the bragging power). It also isn't aimed at F1 teams. It's primarily for grassroots motorsports.
Every race series I have run in has mandated that you must run your car on pump fuel available from a petrol station. Octane boosters etc. haven't been allowed. Therefore, by offering this new fuel on the forecourt, they're opening up the use of high octane fuel to the club racer.
There is 0 benefit of just chucking 102 octane fuel in your road car, unless you also tune it to make use of the properties of the fuel. But then you would have to use it all the time. There isn't much point in sticking it in your road car when you do a trackday either, as you likewise won't get any benefit from just sticking high octane fuel in your tank without also tuning the engine to make use of it.
If you run a race car, you will set the engine up to run on this fuel, and that will give you the benefit. When you're racing, paying a bit more for fuel isn't generally a huge issue. If you're in a sprint series, you'll only use a few litres anyway, so if you're spending £25 on race car feul of £50, it isn't a huge amount of your budget. Ok, in an endurance series it's going to be more. When I ran the Ultima, I would get through 100 litres of fuel between qualifying and the race, but then you're still only looking at an extra £150 over the weekend.
James
Every race series I have run in has mandated that you must run your car on pump fuel available from a petrol station. Octane boosters etc. haven't been allowed. Therefore, by offering this new fuel on the forecourt, they're opening up the use of high octane fuel to the club racer.
There is 0 benefit of just chucking 102 octane fuel in your road car, unless you also tune it to make use of the properties of the fuel. But then you would have to use it all the time. There isn't much point in sticking it in your road car when you do a trackday either, as you likewise won't get any benefit from just sticking high octane fuel in your tank without also tuning the engine to make use of it.
If you run a race car, you will set the engine up to run on this fuel, and that will give you the benefit. When you're racing, paying a bit more for fuel isn't generally a huge issue. If you're in a sprint series, you'll only use a few litres anyway, so if you're spending £25 on race car feul of £50, it isn't a huge amount of your budget. Ok, in an endurance series it's going to be more. When I ran the Ultima, I would get through 100 litres of fuel between qualifying and the race, but then you're still only looking at an extra £150 over the weekend.
James
As James said this is not a fuel for road cars and will give precisely nil benefit for cars with standard ECU's. Those with "intelligent" ECU's which can advance or retard ignition depending on fuel quality might get some small benefit but not enough to justify the expense. The real benefit will come from re-mapping the engine for the higher octane fuel and ultimately from rebuilding the engine with higher compression ratios (or higher boost levels in a forced induction car). Given that many racers are resricted in terms of what modifications they can make to engines this probably opens up an alternative tuning opportunity which many will find attractive.
Just come back from N.Zealand where it is already available from a few service stations and I made NO improvement on 1/4 mile times (Raced with the tank filled up that morning ) but the engine did feel smoother,better pick up,and the exhaust popped/banged a little more on overun than usual and economy improved a fraction. I`ll be sticking to Optimax...my 1p worth.
venom500 said:
Just come back from N.Zealand where it is already available from a few service stations and I made NO improvement on 1/4 mile times (Raced with the tank filled up that morning ) but the engine did feel smoother,better pick up,and the exhaust popped/banged a little more on overun than usual and economy improved a fraction. I`ll be sticking to Optimax...my 1p worth.
I don't think it's the same fuel, this stuff is only available in the UK at present.
On the 'going off' front the fuel has been designed not to go off, i.e. the when formulated the chemists will have been aware that it is far more likely to be stored for longer than usual pump fuel.
I'm not a chemist mind you, so to go into technical detail I'd check on the website.
>> Edited by timmy30 on Monday 24th April 16:40
>> Edited by timmy30 on Monday 24th April 17:19
spuckle said:
I doubt they'll get many sales - who's gonna remap their car to run on fuel available at only 6 petrol stations in the country?!
track drivers who want to run their cars F1 spec fuel on race days?
Btw the idea is to roll out across the country, if, there is sufficient interest.
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