Regular or Super Unleaded?
- Thread starter Loadmaster748
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A performance vehicle needs performance fuel.
I only run my cars on premium fuels, irrespective of the engine.
I did a test on Tesco standard unleaded and Momentum 99, 4 full tanks of each from empty. The period on the standard resulted in a slightly lower MPG and I'm not sure if it was placebo, but it felt a occasionally sluggish. Also take into consideration the additional additives in premium fuels.
This was with a Leon 1.4TSi
I only run my cars on premium fuels, irrespective of the engine.
I did a test on Tesco standard unleaded and Momentum 99, 4 full tanks of each from empty. The period on the standard resulted in a slightly lower MPG and I'm not sure if it was placebo, but it felt a occasionally sluggish. Also take into consideration the additional additives in premium fuels.
This was with a Leon 1.4TSi
Always premium as per the fuel flap I think. I had to put ordinary 95 in my Golf R once as no 99 was available - the difference was almost immediate as my tank was nearly empty when I filled up. The lack of performance was very noticeable. I only put Shell V Power in mine.
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Super/premium, hands down.
tried running both and noticed a significant falling in mpg with the normal stuff. Bloke at stealer said that as the engine is tuned for and expecting more bang from the fuel then it tries to compensate when it doesn't get it. Simply by lumping more fuel in. Now i don't know if he was talking nonsense but it did fit what i saw.
Tesco momentum is the best for me.
tried running both and noticed a significant falling in mpg with the normal stuff. Bloke at stealer said that as the engine is tuned for and expecting more bang from the fuel then it tries to compensate when it doesn't get it. Simply by lumping more fuel in. Now i don't know if he was talking nonsense but it did fit what i saw.
Tesco momentum is the best for me.
The car will run on both.
BUT
RON is the bit you're interested in. Despite popular belief, the higher the RON doesn't mean a bigger bang, its about the stability of the fuel. So on a performance engine that can be pushed harder, the engine can work at higher bhp safer.
So the engine has been tuned with 98+ fuel in mind. So if you stick 95 in it, due to the nature of fuel grades differing across countries, and in the case or Republic of Ireland only having 95, the engine will still run safely, it will just adjust the fuelling to give less power/mpg. If memory serves, the guys in Ireland running 95 where only getting 260-265hp on a Cupra 280.
Other thing worth mentioning. my MINI loved Tesco Momentum 99, was never worth V Power. So when I got my 280 that's what I ran. I think it was @AndrewJB who posted ages ago about how his car although feeling fine on Momentum, the logs suggested otherwise.
So I decided to try V Power for a bit. I went from averaging 250-260 a tank, to 290-300. The better MPG was worth the extra premium (and longer journey to get it)
On the Carbon I've run V-Power from the start, sadly due to the extra weight I only average 260-270 a tank. But then it is Stage 1 etc.
This is a boring but interesting video around Ethanol in fuel, so as I have an Esso garage not tooooo far away, I may see how it runs on Esso's new premium fuel, as when away in France visiting my folks, Esso was what I used more often than not, and both cars ran really well on it despite the heat. But that maybe coincidence as it would defo be a different refinery.
BUT
RON is the bit you're interested in. Despite popular belief, the higher the RON doesn't mean a bigger bang, its about the stability of the fuel. So on a performance engine that can be pushed harder, the engine can work at higher bhp safer.
So the engine has been tuned with 98+ fuel in mind. So if you stick 95 in it, due to the nature of fuel grades differing across countries, and in the case or Republic of Ireland only having 95, the engine will still run safely, it will just adjust the fuelling to give less power/mpg. If memory serves, the guys in Ireland running 95 where only getting 260-265hp on a Cupra 280.
Other thing worth mentioning. my MINI loved Tesco Momentum 99, was never worth V Power. So when I got my 280 that's what I ran. I think it was @AndrewJB who posted ages ago about how his car although feeling fine on Momentum, the logs suggested otherwise.
So I decided to try V Power for a bit. I went from averaging 250-260 a tank, to 290-300. The better MPG was worth the extra premium (and longer journey to get it)
On the Carbon I've run V-Power from the start, sadly due to the extra weight I only average 260-270 a tank. But then it is Stage 1 etc.
This is a boring but interesting video around Ethanol in fuel, so as I have an Esso garage not tooooo far away, I may see how it runs on Esso's new premium fuel, as when away in France visiting my folks, Esso was what I used more often than not, and both cars ran really well on it despite the heat. But that maybe coincidence as it would defo be a different refinery.
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Cheers Damo, that's an interesting read. Thanks for taking the time to write it up!
This ^
Lower RON fuels are less stable under combustion, and thus more likely to suffer pre-ignition (ie knock). In order to reduce knock (and thus damage to the engine components) the ECU retards the timing until the knock is at an acceptable level - but because the timing is not at its optimum position this equates to a drop in performance.
Currently where I live 99 RON Momentum is 8 pence per litre more than regular 95 RON unleaded at 113 pence per litre. The Esso 1 mile further down the road is 131 pence per litre.
The car runs very smoothly on the Esso fuel (2-3 tanks), but not too sure I can justify the price per litre difference, when there’s no issue with the Momentum.
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Before I knew Tesco made Momentum 99, I once remember seeing at the tesco fuel station, a Lamborghini Aventador, a BMW M2, and an Audi RS3 all fuelling up at the same time, they might have been rolling together as were chatting whilst standing and fueling up their cars, was wondering, why would you have such expensive cars and fill up at a supermarket? Guess Momentum 99 was the reason.
Honest review on this, I had the same question for this past 6 months so I tried normal 95 for 5 months then 99 past month.
Firstly price wise it makes £6-8 difference at the most, So realistically if it made a difference which ill go through next its definitely worth the extra meal money..
Now In terms of difference, Whenever i had 95 fuel when in Sports/Cupra and putting the foot down, the way it put the power down wasn't as smooth, It struggled for a second to know what was going on then gave it the power it needed. Now with 99 i have definitely noticed the difference in how smooth the power is put down and also it feels like the full BHP is being used, Which after searching up online why it felt like this videos and forums have confirmed this is indeed the case when putting 99 compared to 95 so it does in the manual book too.
Conclusion: If you want smooth power output and want to use the whole power of the car for what its made for go for 99 RON, If you will be doing city driving 99 percent of the time and wont be kicking down or full throttling anytime soon go for 95 RON.
Also watch this technical video if you want to really know how it makes a difference:
Firstly price wise it makes £6-8 difference at the most, So realistically if it made a difference which ill go through next its definitely worth the extra meal money..
Now In terms of difference, Whenever i had 95 fuel when in Sports/Cupra and putting the foot down, the way it put the power down wasn't as smooth, It struggled for a second to know what was going on then gave it the power it needed. Now with 99 i have definitely noticed the difference in how smooth the power is put down and also it feels like the full BHP is being used, Which after searching up online why it felt like this videos and forums have confirmed this is indeed the case when putting 99 compared to 95 so it does in the manual book too.
Conclusion: If you want smooth power output and want to use the whole power of the car for what its made for go for 99 RON, If you will be doing city driving 99 percent of the time and wont be kicking down or full throttling anytime soon go for 95 RON.
Also watch this technical video if you want to really know how it makes a difference:
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I agree with the above, in normal situations, even with my wife's 2015 1.2TSI 110PS Polo, I aim to refuel with UL+ every 4th or 5th tank of fuel, to try to make use of the extra detergents, same for my 2011 Audi S4, though as its usage has been cut back so much (only used for out of town and longer journeys), and so only needed refilled twice a year, it always, at the moment, gets filled with UL+ and ideally Esso's new fuel.
My wife's previous car was a 2002 Polo 1.4 16V - so a low powered port injection engine, that engine was terrible, low power, no low end torque and poor economy when run on UL - always from BP or Esso, never from supermarkets, but when it was filled with Shell UL+ it behaved a lot better, improved drivability but slightly worse economy, so using UL+ fuels on engines that were never designed to be able to be optimised running with them, really can sometimes improve things despite what the "experts" claim - seeing(driving) is believing.
My wife's previous car was a 2002 Polo 1.4 16V - so a low powered port injection engine, that engine was terrible, low power, no low end torque and poor economy when run on UL - always from BP or Esso, never from supermarkets, but when it was filled with Shell UL+ it behaved a lot better, improved drivability but slightly worse economy, so using UL+ fuels on engines that were never designed to be able to be optimised running with them, really can sometimes improve things despite what the "experts" claim - seeing(driving) is believing.
Sadly that video doesn't really explain what knock is, but then he does say to go find his video.
When I first got my Cupra 280, I tried to work out whether one fuel over another would be better. So, I logged every tankful and the miles driven. After a while I clocked that there were a lot of variables that might make the test invalid, e.g. what time of year (warm up time?), how enthusiatically I drove, what pump I filled up at, whether I did a lot of long distance trips.
The only solution I came up with was to alternate fuels every tankful after running down to empty - and to do that for over a year. I managed to keep it up for 18 months (because my job gave me a fuel card that had to log everything). By which time, the difference in economy between standard unleaded (95 cheap Tesco) and super (98+ from Shell, BP or Tesco) was 3% improvement on super.
This still didn't remove the possibility that when the car drove better(on super), that I unconsciously drove harder because it was more fun.
Not worth the price difference if you are on a budget, to be honest, but the recommended fuel for a Cupra is 98+ - so I just use that now. The car ran on either with displaying any detrimental effects to the car itself. I still have it, it's Stage 2, over 67000 miles and nothing has gone wrong (apart from me breaking 4th gear) even though it had so much 95 through it.
Excellent insight there.
Would you be kind enough to share more, rather than leave us with a statement that doesn't specify what's been posted here that is 'crap' (In your opinion) and what isn't? 
I have a fuel card through work so unfortunately I can only put in the standard stuff which I've never had a problem with. I'd put premium in if I could (and yes I have raised the point that more cost up front = more mpg and therefore potentially equal or better off overall but they only see the bottom line at that particular time 
) a cheeky tank if the premium stuff every now and then as it was the 'only pump free' 
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) a cheeky tank if the premium stuff every now and then as it was the 'only pump free' 
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It does advise on the inside of the fuel cap.In the previous cupra I used standard unleaded. In the current one is feed her Tesco 99.
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