Cumbrian Shell V power - a rant

Cumbrian Shell V power - a rant

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The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,855 posts

219 months

Thursday 26th May 2016
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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

JLZ78

179 posts

101 months

Thursday 26th May 2016
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That is outrageous

Edited by JLZ78 on Thursday 26th May 15:45

xjay1337

15,966 posts

117 months

Thursday 26th May 2016
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The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,855 posts

219 months

Thursday 26th May 2016
quotequote all
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

2,890 posts

170 months

Thursday 26th May 2016
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Without getting into a petrol debate, I doubt your car will notice the difference, but you will by avoiding that trip each time!

zeb

3,193 posts

217 months

Thursday 26th May 2016
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To be fair whitehavens only just got electricity.......

Ady128

535 posts

142 months

Thursday 26th May 2016
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I've run my 991 on Morrisons fuel for 4 years and it's been ok for me. I once tried V Power and the only thing I noticed was the extra 50p a gallon it cost!

bigmowley

1,875 posts

175 months

Thursday 26th May 2016
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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.

JLZ78

179 posts

101 months

Thursday 26th May 2016
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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.

INWB

896 posts

106 months

Thursday 26th May 2016
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Ady128 said:
I've run my 991 on Morrisons fuel for 4 years
Makes note to self - Don't ever buy a 991 from Ady128

mdianuk

2,890 posts

170 months

Thursday 26th May 2016
quotequote all
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 biggrin
PS - did you sell your original GT4? Can we have some pics of the GT4 Club? wink

Edited by mdianuk on Thursday 26th May 21:57

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,855 posts

219 months

Sunday 29th May 2016
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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

xjay1337

15,966 posts

117 months

Sunday 29th May 2016
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99% of diesels never achieve passive regen.
They regen on a 400-600 mile cycle.
I have witnessed this first hand.

Even using vpower diesel and doing nothing but motorway journeys the dpf soot still built up and actively regen when soot reaches the set marker.

Digga

40,204 posts

282 months

Sunday 29th May 2016
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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...

bitchstewie

50,767 posts

209 months

Sunday 29th May 2016
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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.

The Red Devil

251 posts

106 months

Monday 30th May 2016
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Ady128 said:
I've run my 991 on Morrisons fuel for 4 years and it's been ok for me. I once tried V Power and the only thing I noticed was the extra 50p a gallon it cost!
My friend you are asking for trouble

a4ash

114 posts

240 months

Tuesday 31st May 2016
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Don't go to the Carlisle City Centre one, that closed after the floods and they are not going to open it again.

I have a shell fuel card for work and when I come home to see my family I have to make sure I fill up with plenty of thought for the miles I'm going to do.

drybeer

957 posts

224 months

Tuesday 31st May 2016
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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?

The Red Devil

251 posts

106 months

Tuesday 31st May 2016
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zeb said:
To be fair whitehavens only just got electricity.......
There he is, alive and well..sense of humor unblunted by the ravages of time & tide

redback911

2,702 posts

265 months

Tuesday 7th June 2016
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Just moved back to Cumbria and very happy to see that the Texaco garage at Newby Bridge is now a Shell garage, and they have V-Power. Ok, not exactly West Lakes, but it helps (me anyway).