Discovery

If you’ve cruised by a Shell gas station lately, you may have noticed the big time promotional effort hawking theirnew fuel V-Power. Called their most advanced fuel ever, V-Power is supposedly capable of cleaning engine parts as it’sused, specifically the critical intakes and fuel injectors. According to Shell, V-Power contains five times the minimumamount of cleaning agents required by government standards, and they use a hell of a lot of analogies to demonstratethe benefits: clogged pipes, dirty ovens, cleaning and waxing a car’s exterior, etc. Shell’s website sets the U.S.octane rating at somewhere between 90 and 93, as V-Power will be replacing their premium grade. I saw V-Power for $2.14in Massachusetts the other day, which doesn’t seem too out of line for high-test. Did I just write “high-test”? What isthis, 1955? Although it’s easy to be skeptical about “fuel technology” since one is for the most part going on completeblind faith, I’ll give it a go on my next fill-up, which is usually at Shell anyway.

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