vik - for sure you need to start using premium
I can definitely notice the difference in my cars performance when I put higher octane fuels vs. Regular in my vehicles but personal choice is personal choice. People do whatever they want. As for the minimum octane recommendation, almost ever car has them and since your car is German, they probably either say 91, or 93, or Premium Fuel Only.
Would actually be going back to using Premium. Was using Premium all the way through the Ferrari and Porsche(s). Switched to Regular for the G. Didn't realize it would strike such a nerve. -
This is a good way of looking at it... for such a low use/low miles car, and for the cost of the car and the purposes of getting it (i.e. I'm hoping "performance" is one of them), the extra $5 is nothing, especially when you factor in the premium paid to have such a high performance vehicle (car cost, maintenance cost, insurance cost) versus a "regular" car... if it was about saving money, you could have gotten a regular car instead, eh? Then again, my "fun" car is an RX-7 turbo -- and I've always been told that I have to put super in it else I risk grenading the engine... my daily, though, which CAN use super, but retards itself to run on regular, can stay on regular...
Yup. My brother told me the same thing when he has his RX-7. He had a Red 93 and always put super/premium.
Dont drive a nice sports car but the Towncar and Suburban I drive guzzle gas like one.... $3.27 here a gallon for regular.
you wont realize the "extra performance" with just normal driving. Push your car on a track and you will be surprised what 93 will do. Vik, come to a track with me sometime and we will get you hooked up with 100+ octane. Tell me what you think of your G then
Bottom line gentlemen is that the G does require higher octane fuel to run within the performance threshold that was designed with the V10. The owners manual will undoubtedly state that. Today's computers will retard timing and keep the engine from damage for the most part if lower octane fuel is used, however that is designed in due to the variation in fuel quality around the globe. Vik...put premium fuel in that puppy (min. 91 oct) so that you will not only see the performance that you deserve in such a beautiful machine, but also guarantee that it will be with you for many years to come.
Happy to do so. Makes no difference to me either way. Just didn't want to be suckered into the marketing hype. Need to validate what the owners manual says, but since there seems to be a growing opinion from individuals in the know that Premium gas does make a difference, I'm happy to switch back.
An old friend of mine's family owned a fuel delivery company back when. He always told me there was no tremendous difference in the range of octanes. This was 10+ years ago. I use regular 87 in my daily driver (not a sports car) and always fill the beast with Premium. I used to put 87 or 89 in my wife's Jag S-Type that *REQUIRED* 91 or higher in the owners manual and never had an issue. Still, for the extra few dollars, im with Keith. Peace of mind.
"Higher octane ratings correlate to higher activation energies. Activation energy is the amount of energy necessary to start a chemical reaction. Since higher octane fuels have higher activation energies, it is less likely that a given compression will cause knocking. (Note that it is the absolute pressure (compression) in the combustion chamber which is important - not the compression ratio. The compression ratio only governs the maximum compression that can be achieved). It might seem odd that fuels with higher octane ratings burn less easily, yet are popularly thought of as more powerful. The misunderstanding is caused by confusing the ability of the fuel to resist compression detonation (pre-ignition = engine knock) as opposed to the ability of the fuel to burn (combustion). However, premium grades of petrol often contain more energy per litre due to the composition of the fuel as well as increased octane. If you are already using the proper octane fuel, you will not obtain more power from higher octane fuels. The engine will be already operating at optimum settings, and a higher octane should have no effect on the management system. Your driveability and fuel economy will remain the same. The higher octane fuel costs more, so you are just throwing money away. If you are already using a fuel with an octane rating slightly below the optimum, then using a higher octane fuel will cause the engine management system to move to the optimum settings, possibly resulting in both increased power and improved fuel economy." posted from WIKIpedia.org Common knowledge from physics I, we discussed this a lot in class actually, i just didnt feel like typing it myself lol. my take on the situation is that the harm is minimal, but if you want optimal performance you need it. http://dinancars.com/whitepapersFile.asp?ID=9 ^check out this study on the difference between 91 oct and 93 oct.
Back to post....I'm amazed. Two days after the announced "Crisis" and the price hasn't risen.....yet! And I use to pump gas in college (a 3rd part time job). It was Dis-Gas...a subsidiary of Cumberland Farms (Burlington Foods). We had all sorts of tankers pull up & put gas in our tanks. Getty, Sunoco, NoName, Chevron, Gulf, etc. etc. And it was our job to take down all the prices of gas stations in the area & set our price .01 cent below average. So if just one station bumped their price up, ours went up too. I never saw price tied to supply, just local price.
