You may have heard we visited the Shell lab and Ferrari garages during Friday Free Practice at Silverstone. We might have mentioned it once or twice.

After talking to the very nice and incredibly smart people at Shell, they convinced us that V-Power is worth a second look. Mr C has tried superior fuels before and was already aware of the potential benefits - a cleaner engine, and better performance. I was not, and disappointed everyone by suggesting my local supermarket fuel was just as good.

With this in mind, we thought it a great opportunity to officially debut Sidepodscience with the Shell V-Power Challenge.

The aim

• To establish whether V-Power makes such a difference it can be felt by someone not scientific like me.
• To compare V-Power with BP Ultimate - a rival fuel of similar description.

The challenge

I have run my car down of supermarket fuel and will fill up with V-Power. After two weeks I will report back on whether any difference could be felt.

Mr C will be moving from BP Regular to BP Ultimate to see if there is any difference. He will then switch to V-Power to determine any difference between the two (supposedly) equal fuel types.

Finally

It is worth noting that V-Power (and Ultimate) costs a couple of pence more per litre than regular fuel does, which would work out as a few pounds extra for a full tank.

We have it on good authority from multiple sources that the more expensive fuel is better for your engine. Even if the difference couldn't be felt, that doesn't mean it isn't keeping the insides clean and saving you a couple of hundred quid at the garage.

I think that sums up what we're going to be doing and why. We'll report back here in two weeks with our findings. Meanwhile, let us know if you have any experience of fuels and the difference between them, or if you have any more scientific notes to add.