Cumbrian Shell V power - a rant
Discussion
Running on fumes this morning, late for work and I roll into WHITEHAVEN with 4 miles to go on the trip computer. 997 C2S
onto t'Internet (yes they have it in Whitehaven) to find my local Shell V-power, and see the map above. That's Whitehaven on the far left with the marker flag on it, just next to the rats nest, and Ireland.
Is this some sort of joke?
Do Shell have something against West Cumbria?
Am I going to stoop as low as putting BP Ultimate in my tank?
what is the (first) world coming to?
I might sell my car and buy a trawler ship, fill up with fish oil and sail off to Ireland, or whatever land you can see from the docks here, is it Canada?
And what's worse, yes worse, I got a £2.50 Shell Fuel Voucher WITH FREE deli2go (shudder) Bacon and Cheese Bap yesterday in the post from Shell.
grumble
/rant over
Edited by The_Doc on Thursday 26th May 13:54
xjay1337 said:
oooh,but Supermarket Fuel is made with Arsenic and Mistrust though isn't it?
Does my German Go-wagon drink this muck?
/potentially libellous query
mdianuk said:
Without getting into a petrol debate, I doubt your car will notice the difference, but you will by avoiding that trip each time!
Not so sure about that. I would have agreed with you until recently. However had my Cayman race car on dyno for quite a long time. Used up all the fuel (Shell V-power). Nearest fuel station was a Tesco, filled up with Tesco finest 99 octane. Saw an immediate drop in performance, engine was running into knock limit much sooner with corresponding drop in power and torque. Had to drain it all out and refill with fresh V-power and all was fine and dandy again. So yes it does make a difference. Whether you could tell on the road I very much doubt.It'd be interesting to know how fresh V-power and Tesco Finest stay in the petrol station tanks. I can't imagine a lot of places get through it particularly quickly, so it's possible that 'freshness' depends on that station's turnover. Same goes for all fuels, but as a premium is being paid for the good stuff it is relevant.
bigmowley said:
Not so sure about that. I would have agreed with you until recently. However had my Cayman race car on dyno for quite a long time. Used up all the fuel (Shell V-power). Nearest fuel station was a Tesco, filled up with Tesco finest 99 octane. Saw an immediate drop in performance, engine was running into knock limit much sooner with corresponding drop in power and torque. Had to drain it all out and refill with fresh V-power and all was fine and dandy again. So yes it does make a difference. Whether you could tell on the road I very much doubt.
Naturally my reference was to road use; I'm not a track monster like you PS - did you sell your original GT4? Can we have some pics of the GT4 Club?
Edited by mdianuk on Thursday 26th May 21:57
Here's what one of the forecourt staff told me last week:
"The base fuels are the same. But the only people to take a supply of 99 octane in the UK are Shell and Tesco - taking 100% of the UK capacity, and importing more from Holland, too!
As for additives - the oil multiples obviously spend a lot more on research, especially those with a heavy involvement in motorsport - whereas the supermarkets take an off the shelf additive pack, which may not even be consistent between deliveries.
Supermarket fuels won't cause the engine to gunk up in the short term, but he said they're pretty confident the non-supermarket additives will stop most carbonisation / varnish type deposits, as well as helping to clean what is there.
The interesting one is diesel - although there's no 'octane' as such - the Nitro+ diesel is definitely significantly cleaner - He said he ran a BMW and didn't suffer with any sooty deposits on the back of the car, and the DPF had never shown a regen cycle! "
interesting
"The base fuels are the same. But the only people to take a supply of 99 octane in the UK are Shell and Tesco - taking 100% of the UK capacity, and importing more from Holland, too!
As for additives - the oil multiples obviously spend a lot more on research, especially those with a heavy involvement in motorsport - whereas the supermarkets take an off the shelf additive pack, which may not even be consistent between deliveries.
Supermarket fuels won't cause the engine to gunk up in the short term, but he said they're pretty confident the non-supermarket additives will stop most carbonisation / varnish type deposits, as well as helping to clean what is there.
The interesting one is diesel - although there's no 'octane' as such - the Nitro+ diesel is definitely significantly cleaner - He said he ran a BMW and didn't suffer with any sooty deposits on the back of the car, and the DPF had never shown a regen cycle! "
interesting
bigmowley said:
Not so sure about that. I would have agreed with you until recently. However had my Cayman race car on dyno for quite a long time. Used up all the fuel (Shell V-power). Nearest fuel station was a Tesco, filled up with Tesco finest 99 octane. Saw an immediate drop in performance, engine was running into knock limit much sooner with corresponding drop in power and torque. Had to drain it all out and refill with fresh V-power and all was fine and dandy again. So yes it does make a difference. Whether you could tell on the road I very much doubt.
Interesting. I have used Tesco Momentum 99 in my 996 turbo a fair bit. As others say, the relative 'freshness' of the fuel in the tanks at the forecourt is something of an unknown, but filling up with 'fresh' Tesco fuel on a nicely warmed up Mezger engine on Friday morning certainly seemed to give it a bit of a 'lift' in response.I have yet to source/try Shell V-power locally...
Not in Cumbria but I've used V-Power diesel in my Golf since new, it's just a TDi nothing flashy but I've never thought of it as smelly, smoky and whilst it may sound a bit sad I know the exhaust tips are very clean and that isn't because I clean it often.
I'm losing enough on the car, £10/month on decent fuel is neither here nor there.
I'm losing enough on the car, £10/month on decent fuel is neither here nor there.
Fair point. I use the Shell (on the M6 northbound) just north of Carlisle and the one just east of Dumfries (A75) regularly but never been caught short. I also used Tesco 99 Momentum in my RS6 for years with absolutely no complaints. Agreed V power should have some detergent advantages however MRC tuners (Audi specialists) would advocate Tesco 99 as a benchmark when doing rolling road dyno sessions so must be decent standard?
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