Boozehound

*cough* marketing. *cough*

That is all.

Silverarrow

I seem to remember hearing that the gas companies all get their "gas" from the same suppliers and then add their additives to that base, i dunno. It seems to me that 3x the requried additives may not be necessarily better. But here bigger/more is seen as better. Additives aside, i really think the V-Power is a marketing scheme. Not to say that people aren't seeing better mpg and all, i don't know about that. But, seems to me that if you tell someone that something is good for their car they will ignore the extra cash they spend on it to be "good" to their car. Higher octane fuel simply burns slower, which allows engines usually to have increased resistance to detination. I don't know exactly when i read it but hotrod had a write up a few years ago about how some engines actually perform better with less than high octane.

FWIW

Vertigo-1

iTrader: (3)

I personally haven't seen much of a gain the two times I've used Shell V-power. If anything, my MPG seems to drop like a ton of bricks when using it. I'll see how my current fill with it goes, but if it's as expected, which is between 150-200, then I'm sticking with Chevron. V-power does cost the most around here, $2.61 a gallon.

Dark8

I ran V-Power until I tried the Shell 87 and noticed no difference in my average mpg. I average around 19 mpg combined on both. The best I have averaged with V-Power was 21 mpg on a 600 mile freeway trip. I would have to AVERAGE 21 mpg on V-Power all the time to see any cost savings. Not going to happen for me. Quoted gas prices are AAA averages for Oregon.

On 87 octane you average around 19 mpg:
13 Gallons x $2.087 per gallon = $27.131/247 miles = 10.98 cents per mile

On 92 octane you average around 21 mpg (I wish!):
13 Gallons x $2.235 per gallon = $29.055/273 miles = 10.64 cents per mile

And if I could average that 21 MPG for 1000 miles, I would save $3.40.

If somebody can get 2+ more mpg with V-Power, go for it.

Zootx8

I've got a buddy who I got my Chem Eng degree with. He's now working for Shell's in-house consulting. Brought this up with him, and he says V-Power has 5 times the required amount of "cleaning goodies". More or less, it's like adding a can of engine cleaner every 4 tanks or so. He also says Shell has a lot higher standards on the product they put out. More or less, you get what you pay for. I trust his word, since he's got experience working for other oil/gas companies as well.

HERO

iTrader: (3)

Vpower > Techron?
Vpower < Techron?
Vpower = Techron?

SHOWOFF

You're lucky st that price. $2.26 a gallon at it's cheapest here in KC. It was as high as $2.36 earlier this year. Still not as high as California.

V-Power is awesome. I trust Shell also because they make the fuel for the Scudaria/Ferrari F-1 Team. They are actually looking into making a type of fuel that will meet the strict F-1 regulations but will actually be lighter weight.

Boozehound

I know there's a difference for the V-Power Diesel in Cali, Germany, Japan, and China. That stuff is produced at GTL plants (gas to liquid) so you don't end up with many of the byproducts in the diesel you get from traditional oil-derived diesel. I don't think V-Power gasoline is different (other than additives) than the traditional high octane premium fuels, but there is something to the V-Power diesel.

spork

Yeah, it's about $2.48 for the cheap stuff (87 octane) in southern California. So V-Power is about $2.60+ here.

I haven't noticed any difference in mpg with V-Power though. I've used it for one and a half tanks so far and the last half tank I had was at my typical 15.6 mpg. Sigh. I'm hoping it'll eventually get to about 20, but I'm starting to lose hope. Oh well.

Celronx

iTrader: (1)

All I use is Shell....mostly the V-Power. The price has ranged here in Houston from 2.05-2.15/gallon in the last week. So far (1 week) I've gotten 20.86 mpg. There's been such a deal made about the mileage that I've decided to keep track of it. So far so good. It's better than the mileage on my '98 Tacoma Prerunner.....

MrWigggles

Octane rating only relates to the gasolines ability not to knock. It doesn't really indicate the energy density of the gas.

Pure Xylene has a very high octane rating and very high energy density. But not all fuels do; some are high octane but low energy density.

So it is possible when a manufacturer mixes their high octane gas that they can use good fuels to get up to 93 octane or poor fuels to get there. (I believe there is a seperate unpublished driveability rating that gasoline manufacturers have to meet as well, but it is seperate than the octane rating.) Could Shell use better fuels in their mix? I don't know, but since they are only advertising the additional detergents, I have to think that is the main difference between them and other gases.

My other question is how does the rotary get dirty anyway? It doesn't have valves as shown on the Shell website. What's gunking things up that needs the detergents?

Since V-power is a few cents more expensive, I think I will stick with lower priced premiums for the moment.

-Mr. Wigggles

Zootx8

I imagine the only part that could really get gunked up would be the fuel injectors themselves, and maybe the rotor may have some carbon build up over time similar to a piston engine, but that wouldn't really be a huge problem, just increase compression ever so slightly.

irish8

V-Power is the only way forward. I contacted MNAO after I bought my 8 and asked what exact octane they recommended. I was recommended by a CS agent that drives an 8 (or so they said) use Shell V-Power.

They said...I buy. I feel sorry for you west coasters and northerners!! V-Power in North Texas today is $2.15!!!

- Irish

Zootx8

V-Power in Charlottesville Virginia is 2.09, ha
Where in N.Tx are you? I'm from North Richland Hills.

NavyDood

I have to disagree. Too many ppl are reporting better results. Not just us 8 owners.

RotaryNoob

2.80 for v-power at my local Shell today...

irish8

Hey Zootx8.....I'm in Addison, Dallas. Your screen name suggests youre a native Texan? It's a sad day when gas prices are cheaper on the East coast vs. Texas?

- Irish

Zootx8

Yeah, but it was a good day after moving out here when I realized that gas prices were within a few cents of what they were back in ft. worth.

Buckeye3d

My experimentation with V-Power has shown zero improvement over any other super-premium brand. I get the same range of MPG (16.5 - 17 MPG or so) and no noticable boost in performance. This is mostly fairly aggressive city driving.

frig

I went from 16mpg to 20.4 mpg on the first tank of V-Power. However going form 1.97 per gal to 2.22 per gal is a little hard to get used to. I guess I'll go for their credit card and at least get the discount. Thanks for the info to whoever started this thread.

titaniumgrey

no problem
update on the gas , prices don't seem to be getting lower .... , hmmmz filled up last nite at close to 30 bucks last night with V power ..... not good , when are gas prices gonna go down ?

RotorManiac

^Never, I think. Petroleum reserves won't last long...

You guys at the other side of the atlantic, shouldn't be crying about the prices. we need more than 50euros to fill our tanks will v-power premium gas that's 1.1euros per LITRE or about 4.5euros/5.6bucks per gallon

meladdin

Used nothing but V-power on my summer road trip, Portland OR -> L.A. round trip (1000 mi each way). That stuff worked really good. I forget what my road trip MPG was. When I got back I stuck with it.

Before Road Trip NON V-Power= 16.8 MPG
After Road Trip ALL V Power= 18.5 MPG

I always used to get to 180Mi with a 1/4 tank left. Now I get to 200Mi.

V-power, marketing or not, works for me.

kdlunde

Jury's still out for me... I had my M flash done earlier this month, then I noticed my MPG decreased from 21 to just under 20. However, I then realized that at the same time, I had started more city driving (taking my 16 year old daughter to driving school - , so that may have accounted for it.
I then filled up with V-power last week, and it appears my MPG is back where I had it before, but I think I need to try a couple more tankfuls to see if it really is the gas, or just my driving patterns.
And don't worry - my 16 year old will NOT be driving my '8!!!

flatso

I have noticed that I have not gotten a rotten egg smell from time to time as I did before using the V.