Episode 10 Now Online – The Fuel Test
98 Octane, Ethanol, E10…. all words which we are hearing more and more both in the news and on TV and also by customers wanting the best performance out of their car.
With this we have decided to answer the questions with knowledge by testing a variety of different fuels back to back on the dyno. The results are definitely interesting and may change both the performance car industry and even the environment in the future.
See the results of testing 91 Octane Unleaded, 98 Octane Unleaded, E10 Ethanol Blend, E85 Ethanol Blend and a 120 Octane dedicated race fuel.
To give some relief from the dyno action we also head down to the Latrobe Valley Street Machine Show with a few cars and get up close and personal with one of the organisers.
C31 Melbourne 
QCTV Brisbane 
C31 Adelaide 
great info guys, keep the episodes coming!
Did you guys ever try the shell v power racing fuel which had a 100RON rating and a 10% ethanol blend.
I got my car tuned on that fuel. my car is a VZ R8 clubbie and i had a full difilippo exhaust system with extractors and OTR intake. On that fuel my car made 283.3rwkw and on BP ultimate it made 270rwkw
Thats a good result for the change in fuel! We didn’t do much with the v power racing as it wasnt readily available. We have plans to do more testing in the future though and have been speaking with shell about their products.
Very good episode, actually sat down and watch half a dozen of them the other night. Keep it up.
I noticed that United also have a 100 octane 10% ethanol fuel. I usually use Ultimate however I need to get a tune done again soon and I was thinking of changing over, do you think it would be worth it? And also would it have a similar effect like E85 to rubber or is a small amount of ethanol alright.
Thanks Sean!
Having not used it ourselves we couldnt comment on the United 100. Keep in mind that if you were to tune specifically for 100 then you would be limited to only using that specific fuel. Having said that we would be more than happy to tune a car with it to see how it went, you shouldnt have any problems with fuel system components.
Guys – When’s the next episode coming out?
Today, sorry for the delay.
thanks for comparing the fuels guys I was also supprised about the E10.
Hi Rob,
If you have a normal road car (eg VZ 6cyl)tuned for E10 or E85 fuel but are travelling through the country and can’t get that fuel will there be any problems with going back to something else – say 98 RON?
Alternatively do you need to tune a car for the specific fuel or is it ok to chop and change depending on availability?
Cheers…Paul
Hey Paul,
Firstly on a standard road car the use of E10 would probably not require a specific tune, hence you could safely interchange it with ordinary premium at any time. E85 however requires upgrades to the fuel system capacity and a specific tune, this would render the vehicle unable to run on any other fuel.
Kyle
HPF