supermarket 95 vs optimax vs ultimate

[Alistair C]

Anyone else see 5th gear yesterday?

They did an AB test with these three fuels in 3 cars. A clio, a new golf Gti and an Impreza.
Took all three to 'Thor Racing's' dynamometer and bolted up the cars. In between runs, the fuel was run through and the ECU's were reset.
BHP Results:

------------------CLIO------Golf------Impreza-------(impreza's torque)
Supermarket 95-----81-------172-------235--------------232
Ultimate------------81-------174-------248--------------248
Optimax------------81-------177-------249--------------258

All made for interesting viewing - although now my local tesco has started doing super - I know what mine'll be running on - never really got on with optimax myself.

[Mihnea]

I'm surprised a GTI only has 177 HP, factory rates them at 200 PS, I've done a couple on zee dyno in germany and they all had between 198 and 204 PS....


weird...

[dan_b]

This is a flawed comparason IMHO - they're not actually comparing like with like?

It would be more useful to have compared:

Supermarket 95 vs. Shell 95 vs. BP 95 AND
Supermarket Super 97 vs. Tesco 99 vs. Optimax vs. Ultimate

THEN we would get more of a picture as to what different fuels are like.

[S2 Ant]

A 14hp gain on the Impreza from Standard Unleaded to Optimax at least shows its not all just media hype and product branding, thats a sizeable gain in power!!

But yeh Dan, what you suggest sounds like a good idea to paint a better picture.

[S2central.net]

Finally - some independent proof and evidence of the gains to be had from decent fuel.

Alright this is just one set of tests and isn't a completely scientific survey - but look at the torque improvement on the Scooby - thats a mighty useful 11% more torque running Optimax instead of Supermarket 95 !

Using that as rule of thumb - say even 10% rounding down - that means a stock ABY engined S2 runs at 380-38 = 342Nm of torque with Supermarket 95 fuel.

And a stock 3B would be reduced to 278Nm by the same rough calculation.

Or a good chipped 3B or ABY running nominally at 430Nm on Optimax would be struggling to make 387Nm with this supermarket 95 fuel.

I think we should do our own testing - one or more healthy cars at the next rolling road session. We'd need to be equipped with suitable equipment to drain down tanks and swap fuel safely of course but it would be very interesting to do some specific tests on the S2 and include the use of testing additives such as Millers Octane booster (based on MMT) and my favourite theoretical tipple - Toluene !

Paul

[Jamo]

I'm surprised a GTI only has 177 HP, factory rates them at 200 PS, I've done a couple on zee dyno in germany and they all had between 198 and 204 PS....


weird...

Aren't UK GTI's de-tuned? i know previous models had been for the u.k market.

[flossymeister]

Aren't UK GTI's de-tuned? i know previous models had been for the u.k market.

No I think Mihnea's definitely right, Jamo. I think that in UK the output is (supposed to be) 197bhp with 207 lb/ft of torque. Its the same engine as found in the new A3 and A4 2.0T FSI, where it runs identical values I think.

I was a bit surprised by its low dyno score as well, Mihnea! Wouldn't be too happy finding that out on a new car!

Tim

[Mihnea]

Sounds like a victim's syndrom, never heard of UK GTIs ever being detuned in any way, the only "detuning" could be the difference between PS and BHP where BHP figures are slightly lower than PS...

Anyway, all the UK TFSIs that I have tuned had no different software to german models, only a couple months late in terms of software versions because germany gets the updates first....

Cheers,

Mihnea

Aren't UK GTI's de-tuned? i know previous models had been for the u.k market.

[twoqu]

It was interesting for a car programme to attempt that. Normally they are only concerned about the action of a cup holder.
These tests were performed on those wheel hub dynos. So not sure whether that accounts for the disparity in the figures. Can't remember if they said it was at the wheels or not.
Rather than duplicate that, why don't we build a 200mph Audi! Bet we can do a better job of it than those muppets with the Lotus!

[flossymeister]

[QUOTE=twoqu] why don't we build a 200mph Audi! Bet we can do a better job of it than those muppets with the Lotus![/QUOTE

agreed. i always thought it was a daft choice of car. i love the way they put the power up loads and then were surprised when they started frying things like the clutch. And when they said they were gonna try NOS i just couldn't believe it. I know nothing about car modding but i could still have told them they were asking for trouble there.... I'm just glad that nothing worse happened to be honest.....

I didn't think that it was a great advert for the company in charge of the mods, either.

Nice to see that corolla again - outrageous stealth! However, it was the sierra cosworth being driven by the dude without the helmet at over 200mph that did it for me

[Jamo]

no its defo true, VW restricted the motors to get better fueleconomy out of there cars so they could target the buisness market.

Can't find the old link but if i do find it i'll post it.