Performance with a tank of Optimax

[len_beach]

I normally use Sainsburys Super or BP Ultimate when filling my 172 each week as the outlets are pretty close to me. This week I was at a mates and was running low so thought I would try a tank of Optimax. What a difference. The car pulls like a train in comparison to before, is smoother through the gears and returns better MPG. I can't believe it.
Some may say that the extra go is due to the colder weather at the mo' but I'm driving it harder as well meaning I wouldn't get improved MPG, but I do.
I love it.

 

[mr bognor]

Yeah good stuff that .

 

[GazCB]

They ran a test on Fifth Gear. The otimax produced better power output and torque than with BP Ultimate.

Tesco have brought out a 99RON petrol but it's only availible at selected garages, none of which are in the north so I can't tell you if it's any good or not.

 

[16v_jon]

try a tank of cool blue racing fuel then come back 108 octaine

 

[MOZZalba]

funny 1 this but when I tried optimax I felt the car was actually slightly down on power/response and the mpg dropped!!!! I run 98ron super unleaded at all times, seems far better on my cup.........weird un.

 

[hairman172]

i use optimax all the time.its the daddy...

 

[the1]

They ran a test on Fifth Gear. The otimax produced better power output and torque than with BP Ultimate.

Yes I remember that they did do a test, but if I remember correctly they had a 1.2 16v New Shape Clio which when used with Optimax didn't return any higher mpg or bhp... Optimax seems to work with more powerful cars.

 

[MRBILLYUK]

Yes I remember that they did do a test, but if I remember correctly they had a 1.2 16v New Shape Clio which when used with Optimax didn't return any higher mpg or bhp... Optimax seems to work with more powerful cars.

Yeah , it gave a scooby an extra 25bhp on the test .On lesser performance cars it won't make much , if any difference .

MrBillyUK !

 

[Dave.]

I use the tescos stuff, its spot on and bllody good value too........

BP are majorly expensive!

 

[Gerry]

They ran a test on Fifth Gear. The otimax produced better power output and torque than with BP Ultimate.

Tesco have brought out a 99RON petrol but it's only availible at selected garages, none of which are in the north so I can't tell you if it's any good or not.

Tesco's near me in London sell it. (I have got it recently because I can get the clubcard points which is always good. I used to use Optimax great stuff. I haven't really noticed any difference between the two in my Williams. Doing a large number of miles each week the club points swimg it at the moment however if I do a long trip I think I would still take Optimax cause it helps to clean the engine.

 

[Fletcher]

They ran a test on Fifth Gear. The otimax produced better power output and torque than with BP Ultimate.

Tesco have brought out a 99RON petrol but it's only availible at selected garages, none of which are in the north so I can't tell you if it's any good or not.

I live down south where they have the Tesco 99ron, it's pretty good stuff, but i still prefer Shell Opitimax

 

[-TA-]

use optimax every tank, makes my exhaust pop like mad! :evil:

 

[Jay]

I always have used Optimax in mine.

 

[Rich]

Same here, Optimax diet from new. Half tempted to try the Tesco stuff when I see some.

 

[daviebroon]

funny 1 this but when I tried optimax I felt the car was actually slightly down on power/response and the mpg dropped!!!! I run 98ron super unleaded at all times, seems far better on my cup.........weird un.

i don't find any difference either. But then i doun't suppose i should really. its only a small powered hatchback really. (still in the little leagues)... i think you need like 200+ ps to really see a difference.

I stick with 95 as its cheaper and seems to be a bit more responsive. The thing with buying tesco 99 (which i have) is that you never know what your getting. If it's like tesco's normal petrol its like bloody water.

I always go to BP as the 95, although typically the more expensive 95... always seems to be the most responsive. When you're at the garage forecourt, and you see optimax at 1.09 and 95 at 89.9 then its easy to see why i choose 95.

I always remember buying a tank of 97 from BP... and my car absolutely flew! and i mean seriously faster than what it was prior. Was so so impressed. However, when i bought some more... it seemed to go back to the way it was. Must have been a good batch lol.

 

[Ian_182]

Optimax from birth me.Got a choice of 5 garages within 10 miles of here in telford so never miss it

ian

 

[Dan@SJM]

at 1st i used regular unleaded, then noticed the lil sticker lol, so i started putting in super from sainsburys and really noticed the difference especially with mpg.

 

[trailerparktrev]

I use Sainsbury's Super Unleaded and then every fourth fill up I'll use Optimax or Ultimate, more for the cleaning additives that are in the more expensive fuels. When the fourth fill up is approaching i run the car right down of fuel (great fun with the fuel range computer when it reads ----) and then fill up with the shell or bp stuff - I do notice though that for the first couple of gallons I get around 28mpg whereas on sainsburys it's always around 30-32mpg. Tesco 99ron i was using that for a while but I was getting 26mpg on a steady 75mph cruise on the motorway. Maybe the car's ecu doesn't like the higher than recommended fuel octane level???

 

[daviebroon]

i doubt 1 ron would make any difference... if you even were getting that. (Clio wants 98 ron)

 

[Munday]

I use BP Ultimate and can't really fault it, couldn't even tell the difference when I tried normal unleaded. Only difference is the price!

 

[Kelly]

Tesco have brought out a 99RON petrol but it's only availible at selected garages, none of which are in the north so I can't tell you if it's any good or not.

They have started rolling it out up here, Brun posted they are selling it in St Helens and i've seen a couple of other posts saying it's for sale in the N/W.

Not heard great stories about the Tesco stuff, Optimax is the best for mine.

 

[mr_merc]

Clio Valver.

Any difference you think? We have tesco 99 and Optimax around here in MK so I'm tempted to run the car right down low and try one of the two.

 

[Maz]

Optimax all the way for me too ...

Been using 95 ron for the last couple of weeks/tanks as I thought I was using too much fuel ... but hell I was sooooooooo wrong ... once this sh1t has gone it will be Optimax forever ... lol

Maz

 

[Ali]

BP is better imo

 

[GazCB]

I asked a salesman at Renault a few months ago if it made any difference using 95ron in a 172 as the manual recommends 98ron. He said it wouldn't really make any difference.

After using ASDA petrol for months, I then went back to Optimax for a full tank just for comparison and I really noticed a difference. Car sounded less harsh too.

This week I e-mailed Renault Technical department to get an "expert" answer. They phoned me the day after and told me I should only use the 97RON or above petrol. They said 97ron shouldn't harm my engine, but not to use the 95ron stuff.

So that was from the horses mouth.

 

[182David]

I don't know what the recommended RON is for a Clio, but unless the engine is mapped for it, it probably won't make masses of difference to the power. Throttle response may well improve, though. I always use Optimax, not only because my car is mapped for 97+RON, but also because of the cleaning properties in the fuel.
Shell are phasing out Optimax sometime, by the way. To be replaced by what Europe have - 100RON V-Power. We should also get V-Power diesel too.
My local Tesco do the 99RON stuff, but Optimax is 98.6RON and it's going to make no difference. Plus, the Tesco stuff is part bio-ethanol.
*Edit*
Just read in the above post that Renault reccoment 97RON in the manual. It's probably a good idea to use it in this case, if nothing else it's likely you won't see the quoted power output.

 

[daviebroon]

Renault actually recommend 98 ron mate. (on my cup at least anyway... i'm assuming its the same for other renault sports)

 

[DebV6]

I've always used Optimax, I tried the Tesco 99 ron yesterday, it seems pretty good to me, my car's feeling quite fast at the moment, but don't know if thats down to the weather and the fact that I hadn't driven it for 5 days before!

 

[CHRIS172CUP]

It's horses for course in these clios imo. I drive 110 miles a day so get to try a lot of fuels. Sometime optimax does wonders and sometimes not. 95 ron is more or less the same in terms of performance from my experience.

Optimax just dissappears quicker and costs more...you do the maths on that one!!

Oh and I found a while back that tesco 99 caused my car to have trouble starting from cold (so did jon_r iirc??) and no different in terms of performance.

 

[Ambo]

Optimax from birth me.Got a choice of 5 garages within 10 miles of here in telford so never miss it

ian

Same here...great isn't it! Noticed the Shawbirch garage charge an extra premium for Optimax. Asked the fella there once and he said they're an independant so get charged more by Shell than the others!

I wonder if some bods who make an issue about using the correct oil, tyre pressures etc then just bung in Tesco's 'finest'...wouldn't make sense to me!

98 recommended so 98 it is then!!

 

[dick]

last time i filled up at shell a few week back, 85.9 for normal, 87.9 for optimax

only ever 2/3p difference round here

ive only got a 1.2, but i use optimax just because its cleaner, and my needs all the help it can with me behind the wheel

 

[E-ray_172]

the tesco 99 felt as good as the bp Ultimate but it didnt do as much mpg, in fact not even close to the mpg i got in the ultimate. i havent yet tried the Optimax, look forward to testing that

 

[D_0_4_7]

I find the tesco 99 ron the better of the 2. I wasn't that impressed with optimax.

 

[Neil G]

I use 97 in my 172....used it in my previous car and it never detted so it's good to go in the Renault.

 

[Daz_172]

I didnt even know about optimax until 3 days ago, i used normal fuel (95ron) like most in my motor, until i went petrol station seaching and found i could get super Unleaded (97ron) for 86.9p,so i began filling with that for the last few weeks, great stuff.

I always thought BP ultimate was 98ron but i was wrong its 97, and its almost 15p more a litre than super unleaded at £1.01p, so whats the point? wheres the difference? there is none its just a f**king rip off!

Suffice to say i no longer use bp ultimate now, ive started on the optimax and for the record it is alot more responsive and sounds very nice, your supposed to use it all the time to get the benefits so only time will tell and at 92.9p a litre where i am, its only 6-7p more for 98ron.

And yes clio sports are recommened to run 98ron or higher because it says so on the inside of my fuel cap!

 

[Daz_172]

read this http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?t=37656&page=3&pp=15&highlight=tescos

alot of the so called expert idiots on this site claim that omtimax isnt even 98ron at all!

 

[Karlos182]

I filled up with Tesco's Super for a while, but it didn't feel quite as responsive as Optimax, so that's what I'll stick to I reckon.
When I've used regular 95 RON rubbish, I've noticed that the car idles like a bag of spanners, but is fine on Optimax.

 

[M1TCH]

I've never been a beleiver of using optimax in a small engine car but since the price came down I've been through 3 tanks of the juice. Then the other day I was empty and a bit short on cash, normal was 6p cheaper so thought I'd go back with that. Straight away I could feel the throttle felt laggy like it always did before, it sort of gets to a certain rpm then hangs for a bit then boosts up, its very odd but very noticable and I know it wasnt like that with the optimax, think I'm gonna try it again to see the difference?!!

 

[Tom_E]

have been using tesco 99RON for the past 2 months and seems to be good...although i would like to try optimax the nearest garage is ages away as the closest garage that sells it went into administration a few months bk !!

 

[Thomss]

Mmmmm yummy, I love optimax