There was another thread recently that went on a tangent about high octane fuel. There's a gas station in my area that has 100 octane race fuel so I figured I'd give it a shot. I knew it was pricy but I was not expecting it to be so expensive ! It's difficult to see in the pic but it's $8.99 a gallon. So I didn't pull the trigger yet.





So the $143.84($8.99X16) question is...Is it worth it?

 

From what I've heard, no, since the ECU's are programmed to run on 91 octane fuel, but I could be mistaken, honestly I have never tried it, too much money for fuel.

 

Only for track use in some cars that can benefit from the higher octane. IMHO it's never needed for road driving (if so, you car has a problem).

 

Depends.

I note you have available only 91 octane when Porsche specifies 93 octane.

If you are that affected by running 91 when you "should be" running 93 octane and don't mind running 100 octane (which is nominally overkill at least from the octane perspective) then have at it.

Be sure the fuel is safe to use with street engines, that it has no additives that are hard on the O2 sensors and converters.

I doubt you will notice much difference with 100 octane fuel present, but you may notice some. A few years ago I had the chance to gas my 03 Turbo with 93 octane and the engine's feel burning 93 vs. the 91 I can only get here in CA was quite improved to the point I would use 93 were it available and at a reasonable price compared to 91 octane. (As it was I paid less for 93 than I was paying for 91 here in CA.) But I would not use 100 just to get the feel that 93 octane gave the engine at least not at the price premium 100 octane commands where you hail from.

Now if you are tracking the car I would advise you to run 100 octane. While 100 octane is overkill at least from the point of view of octane fuel tests have found that racing fuel can deliver benefits that have nothing to do with the elevated octane rating, per se, but arise from the special blend of the fuel.

In closing I will say (paraphrasing) what Porsche has to say in general about gasoline and that is if the engine reacts unfavorably to a brand of fuel switch to another brand. While I doubt your car's engine will choke, so to speak, when fed 100 octane there is always that chance, so be prepared to switch away from it should this happen.

 

Unless you have a tune with a 100 octane map it is a waste. A run it exclusively on one of my other cars that has a such a map, but never on a stock car.

 

Exactly. On the blown Audis, a tune such as APR will give you progressively higher horsepower at 93 and 100, respectively.

Might be worth an experiment to put, say, 2 gallons of 100 octane and the rest of the tank of 91 to see if you gain anything.

And I'd like to know, where is this gas station? I've never seen anything higher than 91 throughout the Bay Area. Formerly lived in Fremont and now San Mateo, Highlands neighborhood off 280.

 

unless you have forced induction, i wont bother.

 

Are you sure that it was unleaded?

 

Is it possible to average two different Octanes. That is 4 gallons of 100 Octane plus 12 gallons of 91 octane would be 93.25 Octane - ((4 x 100) + (12 x 91)) / 16 total gallons. I dunno' maybe it doesn't work that way.

 

It's a 76 station in Saratoga at the bottom of highway 9

 

I agree, if you're car isn't tuned for it, you are not going to see much of a difference.

But if you MUST see for yourself, why not wait until your current gas gets very low and just put like 3 or 4 gallons of it, just to try it out. No need to spend all that money filling up the entire gas tank just for an experiment. If you like it, then fill up afterwards.

 

I bought my car in Washington and drove it back to SoCal. I drove the majority of the way home on 93 octane. Once in California I had to fill up with 91. The first week or so after getting home I noticed that very rarely I could get a small ping accelerating gently off the line. It went away shortly, I believe after the car adapted to the lower octane fuel.

 

^^^This. You do not need to run straight 100 and can blend to achieve 93 or whatever you want rating. You can do it with race gas or use a product called "Torco".

 

Toluene(octane 114) was used by old time racers, use the standard formula to achieve desired octane,,im sure its still available and hella lot cheaper than those octane boosters. not sure if affects cats or not...

 

Thanks for the info, guys! I'm glad I posted here before most likely wasting $150. I do think though that this fuel might be worth a shot in one of my other cars, just not the Porsche.