It was not exactly what you would think. There are tons of people who will tell me that its psychological and so on. But this test was different. I had half a tank of regular Shell 95 in my tank left and was driving around normally till it was almost empty. Then my mother went along and filled our Nissan Latio with half a tank of V-Power without my knowledge because she overheard from me that I wanted to give that theory a go that higher octane fuel equals to better car performance.
So I went about driving again the next day and the next feeling that the car was really a little different. Its acceleration became sharper, even though it is a tiny 1.5l, there was a slight difference. I could pick up speed more quickly than before and the whole acceleration process was smoother. However, once I've settled into a cruise, everything felt normal again, till I floored the pedal again to overtake. It is uncanny how this works because the octane level or rating refers to "how much fuel can be compressed before it spontaneously ignites". So the higher the compression ratio of a car, the higher octane required for the engine to perform at its optimum level. And for a car like the Latio, I wouldn't even dare to call it a performance car even though its the 'Sport' version. Its engine 'moos' on acceleration and 0-100 takes forever. So I wonder why even without my knowledge that there was V-Power in the tank, the car did feel slightly more lively to drive than compared with the lower octane fuel.
So if anyone here can explain this 'phenomenon', I would gladly like to read your explanation because its either my mind is playing tricks on me or the car really does benefit from higher octane fuel irregardless of its compression ratio.
shell v-power, petrol woes and 1 more...
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