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Petrol / Fuel Type Shell V Power, Tesco 99 Momentum, Sainsbury Super Unleaded, BP Super Unleaded

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As a future GT86 owner hopefully in January was wondering what fuel people used out of the premium ones?

I know GT86 only takes Premium /Super Unleaded Petrol. I use Tesco 99 Momentum in my 2004 Celica face lift usually as closest petrol station. But anyone notice GT86 running better with Shell VPower or Sainsbury’s Super unleaded? Heard BP is not so good due to additives or something, but not tried it myself.

 

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Take cover this could get explosive. A lot of opinions inbound. Realistically Tesco v shell only difference should be additives. The car will run fine on most fuels. If the car is tuned, a tuner may tune to a specific fuel. Mixing fuels on highly strung engines not a great idea. Most will tune to vpower, it’s available and plentiful and traditionally has best results. The additives do more then just fuel you car eg clean injection (supposed to anyway). As a rule vpower is always good, most will recommend that as a result. 

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Shell V-Power whenever I can.  I do have a Sainsburys closer with super-unleaded and will use it at a push.  The car doesn't feel quite as responsive on it, but it's a small thing (mine is supercharged and tuned for Shell).  No denying that the Sainsburys fuel is a lot cheaper, though.

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Shell V-Power only since it was boosted and remapped on the recommendation of the tuner.

Previously when stock I used V-Power and Momentum 99. I wouldn't like to state that I could detect a difference.

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I use BP 97 which seems ok. I may switch to 99RON as I do less miles now, and see if it makes any difference. Avoid 95 though, feels like it does the car no good at all.

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For normal day to day, momentum.

For track I'll try and do a full fill with shell. 

I did use standard fuel when I was over in France as I just couldn't get any high octane and it ruined my fuel economy. 

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This engine is very knock sensitive and can't get near MBT unless on E85. Premium fuel is 97RON minimum by law so that is what most supermarket fuels are, 99 will give more headroom and performance. BP 97 isn't that great quality and around here more expensive than both Shell and Tesco, so that to me is a no brainer. 99 RON will vary based on the MON value, and shell and Tesco are similar based on seasonal blends. Ethanol is good for knock resistance, hence being used to boost MON/RON but comes at the expense of more fuel to meet the same ratio. VP is now E5 anyway.

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On 7/16/2020 at 10:55 AM, MartinT said:

Shell V-Power whenever I can.  I do have a Sainsburys closer with super-unleaded and will use it at a push.  The car doesn't feel quite as responsive on it, but it's a small thing (mine is supercharged and tuned for Shell).  No denying that the Sainsburys fuel is a lot cheaper, though.

Non of the Sainsburys near me (on the wirral we have 3) even have super unleaded. I refuse to ever get fuel at them since they use some low emissions eco petrol as the only option. The stuffs shear garbage and has gave the worst mpg I've ever seen. £46 of it in my 1.8 2005 celica got me 105 motor way miles...that's somewhere around 10 mpg. 

 

I'm yet to try shell on my 86, just been using tesco's 99 ron momentum. Wonder if I would feel more of a difference in a standard one as opposed to your supercharged beast

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1 hour ago, Kono said:

Non of the Sainsburys near me (on the wirral we have 3) even have super unleaded. I refuse to ever get fuel at them since they use some low emissions eco petrol as the only option. The stuffs shear garbage and has gave the worst mpg I've ever seen. £46 of it in my 1.8 2005 celica got me 105 motor way miles...that's somewhere around 10 mpg. 

 

I'm yet to try shell on my 86, just been using tesco's 99 ron momentum. Wonder if I would feel more of a difference in a standard one as opposed to your supercharged beast

Surely mileage that low would be an issue with the car. Can’t see the brand of petrol having that much of an impact 

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Hint - they run fine on 95RON too!

 

 

The engine has a knock sensor so will pull out spark and I doubt most of us would notice the difference if it is running retarded. Marketplace fuel in the UK often comes out at ~96+RON so it usually runs better than the fuels the cars were developed on (they are usually developed to a reference fuel rather than actual marketplace). Maybe on a hot day under high load you might push it to knock on 95RON.

All said, I run mine on whatever premium fuel is available at the time. Engine never knocks and pulls just fine. Only combustion issue I ever had was on old spark plugs.

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The engine is 12.5:1 compression ratio and is very sensitive to knock. This is known.

Putting ordinary fuel in a nice car and relying on the knock sensor is short-sighted and the car deserves better. Of course you can feel the difference!

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Thanks for all the replies glad it did not get too explosive. Was not aware of additive differences and what additives do thanks all for breaking it down. Interesting to hear differing opinions especially for the GT86/BRZ, seems most people who get map are recommended Shell V-Power to use. I’ll definitely try Shell V-Power and Tesco 99 momentum in the 86 in Jan. I think I’ll see about Sainsbury Super Unleaded too as never really thought about it.

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Not sure about others, but on my 86 it actually says to use only "98ron+" under the fuel cap. So i''ve used only Tesco99 and VPower+ since I've owned my car.

Since getting it remapped a few years ago I noticed that it didn't run quite as well on Tesco99 as VPower+. I had this feeling that on Tesco99 it was slightly down on power but worried it was a placebo effect, so about a year ago I did the first half of a track day on half a tank of Tesco99 and then on the fuel light switched to half a tank of VPower in the afternoon to make sure there was no weight difference. Weather conditions/temps did not change but my lap times were clearly faster on VPower by a good 1-2 seconds around Anglesey.

Fuel is like wine in my opinion. You're going to get people that say "Bah... wine is wine" and then you'll have those with a finer palate who have taken the time and tasted many different wines and will be able to tell the good stuff from the pig swill.

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On 7/20/2020 at 10:08 AM, Daninplymouth said:

Surely mileage that low would be an issue with the car. Can’t see the brand of petrol having that much of an impact 

One would think yeah, however, it wasn't. I live on the wirral and at the time was working in Salford Manchester. A full tank of standard petrol would get me to Manchester and back 3 times. If I used the petrol at the Sainsburys near Salford quays that was 'eco' town fuel, it would get me to there and back once. 

At first I thought it was heavy traffic/ a lot of time idling/stop start, since travel time could vary from 1.5 to 4 hours depending on Manc traffic at rush hour, but this happened every time i fuelled up there with that fuel, but as soon as I used fuel from anywhere else it was back to the usual 3 times there and back. This was multiple times over 3 years. It also doesn't appear to be a standard fuel for sainsburys either, since both at Upton and Cheshire oaks, the standard fuel isn't classed as 'eco low emissions' and didn't give me the same issue. What ever garbage quality they where selling in Salford was hardly worth the 20p cheaper and 'low emission' trade off. 

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1 hour ago, Kono said:

“If I used the petrol at the Sainsburys near Salford quays that was 'eco' town fuel, it would get me to there and back once.”

Wow. I’ve been doing Manchester to Blackpool daily, 1 hour without traffic, 53 miles. A full tank of VPower/Tesco 99 consistently lasts me just about 5 journeys one way. I am guilty of pushing the revs a bit though!

Cant say the occasional normal fuel fill up reduced this that much that I’ve noticed. Would have worried about a leak if I used the whole tank in one day!
 

 

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That is a weird situation.  If the fuel was to spec you would surely see close to regular mileage. I have never heard of such a drastic effect. It borders on criminal of the fuel station owner.

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Please, cut down on swearing. It seems that twins lightweight NA coupe is not what you wanted, but for many others it works/performs fine, but some specific product not fitting specific individual expectations doesn't exactly justify swearing. It's not fault of car that you want something different, just wrong purchase decision.

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10 minutes ago, Church said:

Please, cut down on swearing. It seems that twins lightweight NA coupe is not what you wanted, but for many others it works/performs fine, but some specific product not fitting specific individual expectations doesn't exactly justify swearing. It's not fault of car that you want something different, just wrong purchase decision.

Guys gone mate with all his stupid comments 

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Owned mine since new and used shell v power none stop for a year, eventually switched to Tesco 99 when shell changed their rewards program so I couldn’t get discounted fuel. I haven’t noticed a difference in performance or fuel economy. However I will say that after using the unknown brand of super unleaded at Bedford autodrome the engine was making the fuel pump washer rattle sound, which went away once I got shell v power back in the tank.

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On 7/27/2020 at 2:18 PM, choupolo said:

“If I used the petrol at the Sainsburys near Salford quays that was 'eco' town fuel, it would get me to there and back once.”

Wow. I’ve been doing Manchester to Blackpool daily, 1 hour without traffic, 53 miles. A full tank of VPower/Tesco 99 consistently lasts me just about 5 journeys one way. I am guilty of pushing the revs a bit though!

Cant say the occasional normal fuel fill up reduced this that much that I’ve noticed. Would have worried about a leak if I used the whole tank in one day!
 

 

Not gonna lie, the first 1-2 hours of the trip was just the M602 from Salford to the M6, then the M6 to M53. First 18 miles took longer than the next 37 which would be only like 30-40 min. This was around the time they just started up the whole smart motorway stuff on the M602 and M6/Ring road. And yeah I almost died when i got in the car the next day and saw only 1/2 the tank left coming bk. Tho it  was only 1.8 celica, it did roughly the same mileage as my 86 on 99ron, but a little bit less on standard 95.

If your doing MCR to blackpool daily I hope someones helping with that fuel cost 😆 I was spending like £6k a year at my surveying job on fuel and they wouldn't even give me company car because I would 'add to many miles' >.>

Happy with the GT86 at the moment on long trips. V power got me roughly 42mpg over a 500 mile trip, 99ron momentum is about 32-40  depending if its town or motorway driving. I wonder how a supercharger or turbo would change that tho o.o

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I try and use V Power (99 ron), but Shell garages are no ideally placed around where I live and my normal work commute, so I probably manage it between 7 - 9 tanks out of every 10..

I have a problem with high ethanol fuels, I don't trust them in terms of long term damage to the engine but they have been imposed near-universally now. V Power used to be ethanol free but now isn't (up to 5% ethanol). Shell have also reduced their cashback on the new club card due to forcing you to be part of their carbon offset virtue signalling.

I know people will say I'm being daft re ethanol, but it was forced on the industry by governments for green reasons, not because it is a better fuel, although it does help boost ron which brings me to...

Tesco Momentum 99 (er, 99 ron) is very high ethanol at around 10%, prob the highest in the UK. I used it once in my 86 and my engine wasn't happy judging by the iff noises it started making. Never again.

I don't rate Texaco Supreme as it's impossible to find out its ron (although they happily publicise the very high ron stuff they sell at Silverstone only or wherever it is).

Similarly, I've always found BP Ultimate (97 ron) to be meh.

One that I do rate is Esso Synergy Supreme (97 ron) as in most of the UK (but not all) it is still ethanol free - see their FAQs Esso Faqs and performance seems good. I can also use my Necter card with Esso which is another bonus 😃

 

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