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Some car manufacturers recommend, some even use the word require, premium gas. These cars are typically the high cost and/or high performance cars. The big V-8 of the Corvette recommends premium but it does don't make it faster. When I do add regular to the Corvette the engine does ping a bit under load however, it does not damage the engine. Todays engines come with what is called knock sensors that protect the engine from under detonation of the gas in high performance engines.

There have been many studies on the subject and, like doing a cardio program, it's all about the burn. High octane is a slower burning fuel, meaning when the fuel is exposed to a spark in the cylinder it takes a little longer to ignite to push the piston back down. This process means more compression which means more power. BUT, not in all engines, which is the key factor. Older American built V-8's would likely make the best use of premium fuels as well as smaller turbo and supercharged aspirated engines. Turbo's and and especially superchargers put more stress on the engine and anything that can help it run more efficiently the better.

As I said before, with todays modern engines, the power output difference is negligible if not un noticeable, and the knock sensors will self adjust your engine so it won't be damaged. Unless you just don't like the occasional ping I'd save the extra .15 a gallon until gas gets back to a affordable price. Additionally you can always alternate fuels in intervals of filling up.

I can't resist one short car story since some of us are car nuts. As Freshmen in high school my friend inherited his grandmothers 1972 white Oldsmobile Ninety Eight. We called it the land yacht, it fit about 13 15 year old teenagers, comfortably. This car had the 455 Rocket engine and was surprisingly, and I might add, scary fast. There were premeditated street race nights, premeditated for us anyway, we would buy a bottle of 104 octane boost additive from the auto parts store and dump it in the gas tank. We'd drive around the main streets looking for our target, either a Mustang GT, a Pontiac Fiero Indy, or any hot rod we could find. We managed to put to shame every car we came across for weeks of doing this, the car seemed unbeatable. That car must have weighed 5000 pounds, I was in disbelief every time we easily took a race. We did have our technique though, we'd force a first gear downshift on the auto transmission by grabbing the gear stalk and throwing it in low as we floored it. We finally got knocked off our high horse by a modified Hurst Olds with the same 455 engine one night in a fitting end to our winning streak. In any case, I don't know if it was so much the octane boost as it was just a great engine, I'll never know. Happy motoring.

Learn more about this author, Rob Purifoy.
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