Blazing the road with Petron Blaze 100 Euro IV
As a journalist, I often travel around the world. But I always take the time to look around the local shops and markets. Oftentimes, we find products that look similar to brand-name items but at a shockingly lower price. I ask why the price is low, if it is real, etc. The popular and very common answer I get is: “same, same, but different.” Which absolutely makes no sense to me, taken verbatim.
Petron’s Blaze 100 Euro IV, funnily enough, can be described the same way. Which in this case, however, is definitely a good thing.
Blaze 100 is perhaps the very lifeblood of many high-performance car enthusiasts, hobbyists, racers and tuners alike. The 100 Octane RON rating means it is very highly resistant to ignition-knock or predetonation. With more and more cars running higher compression ratios (11:1 or higher), and tuners and race-engine builders pushing the limits of turbocharged engines by boosting 30 psi or higher, a fuel that is able to resist knock or pre-ignition yet deliver good power is a very valued commodity. If it delivers a cleaner, more environment-friendly emission from the exhaust, then that means we can enjoy motoring just a little bit longer.
So how does Petron’s Blaze 100 Euro IV differ from the original blend?
Current local fuels in the Philippines have a Global Rating of Euro II, which is practically three generations old. It has 500 parts per million of sulfur and 2-percent benzene by volume.
Step to right direction
Euro IV fuels improve the sulfur content tenfold, dropping it to 50 parts per million, and halving the benzene content to 1 percent per volume. Sounds impressive right? But looking at it from a bigger perspective, Europe now has begun to implement Euro VI standards with even more stringent measures. We’re still behind, unfortunately. But it is a laudable step in the right direction for us to improve our air quality, and laudable for Petron as they’ve slowly begun implementing Euro IV compliance on their fuels a full two years ahead of its mandated implementation in 2016. In the coming months, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more and more Euro IV compliant fuels from Petron.
On the road, the difference is almost imperceptible. There’s no added power as the octane rating is still the same, and I never had a chance to do a back-to-back test-drive of the fuels in the same car, and on the same road and weather conditions. Which is a good thing, as the Blaze 100 fuel enthusiasts have come to know that it performs just as better as its predecessor.
The potential benefits are especially greater for newer, high-performance cars. These have more advanced, more accurate and sensitive fuel systems which need really clean fuels. With Petron Blaze 100’s cleaner Euro IV-complaint blend, the new generation of advanced fuel systems (and engines) will last longer and run more reliably because of the cleaner fuel.
Clean, particle-free fuel
Cars, in particular those which feature direct fuel injection (many Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche, BMW, and even Lexus and Subaru models), need extremely clean, particle-free fuels to prevent their super-sensitive and super-expensive fuel injectors from clogging up and breaking down. Theoretically, we should see far less carbon build-up in and around the intake runners and ports of engines, which tend to suck up atomized fuel and create heat in the process.
This also means that even on older cars, our fuel pump strainers/prefilters and main fuel filters can last longer as there’s debris/gunk floating inside the fuel. On the exhaust side, emissions control equipment, namely the catalytic converter, should also last longer because the combustion quality is better and less-harmful particles exit the engine, which can clog up the vehicle’s catalytic converter, affecting fuel consumption, power and response.
My test unit was the all-new 2013 Subaru Forester XT, which features direct gasoline injection and a turbocharger for good measure. On a winding road leading up to Tagaytay, the Forester was obviously fast and fun, making quick-work of slow-moving cars.
Normally, uphill drives taken at speed take their toll on engines: You can feel the engine losing its breath and loosing responsiveness as heat and altitude settle in and both physics and chemistry fight against the engine (As you climb higher, the vehicle’s cooling system’s boiling point is lowered as pressure drops, and as air density decreases, your engine starts making less power) starts losing power as well.
But with Blaze 100 Euro IV, the Forester felt even better when we reached the summit of Tagaytay. Hard to recall what had happened exactly; did the Forester free up its tight engine after the long, hard drive or was the new Petron Blaze 100 Euro IV really a much better fuel than before? I’d like to think it was a combination of both factors.
Regardless, once my Supra is complete, I’ll be a happy regular customer at Petron’s Blaze 100 Euro IV pumps because it is the best for its intended purpose (sustained high-RPM, high-performance, high-boost applications), is readily available in 24 outlets in Metro Manila (more to follow, with Visayas and Mindanao getting it over the coming months) and is proudly Filipino.
