ok, so theres a few places here in town that sell high octane gas like 102 and 105 or so i think and my question is..how safe is this for my car, say if i used it on drag strip days, dropped a couple gallons in with some 93. do i need to do this a day or so prior to going to the strip to let my engine..i dunno..get used to it? would it be alright to put it in right before going to the strip? wiould this even be worth doing? would i notice any gains with it? what experiences have ya'll had with it? thanks for the info as usual guys...

 

If your car isn't detonating now...you don't need higher octane for the track. More octane just resists detonation better. Will not give you better performance.

 

You won't need it unless you have very high compression.

 

Higher octane doesn't give you more power just because of the octane rating. Higher octane is just harder to burn than lower octane. As heat in the cylinder increases (compression, summer, etc), it's more likely that a lower octane gas will burn before the spark is fired. You get ping - knock - spark knock. Your car will retard timing to avoid that; you lose some power. The higher octane doesn't burn until the spark, so you maintain your HP. So, 92-94 ocatane is all you need unless you turn up the heat.