Okay so one of the great things about shipping my Mini of to the UK last year was that I can get 99 Octane and that truly makes a difference............a whole big difference. The performance change is quite dramatic and so is the price of gas at around $7.75 a gallon

All that aside I began to wonder since my car is a US spec car and the highest octane available where I lived in Connecticut was 93 at a Sunoco station, would 99 Octane be too high and burn too hot potentially causing big problems. Anyone have any idea? Thanks

 

Hey, as long as it has no lead, go for it.

 

Ditto. No lead and your fine! Let us know what its like!

 

They measure octane differently in England and their 99 octane is equal to the 93 octane in the USA. This has been well covered in many threads over the years. If you do a search you should be able to locate more information.

 

I have read some of those articles about how the calculations are different, but I can tell you that after being here a year and driving on 98 and 99 octane the performace difference is very, very dramatic. Whatever calculations they do that says 99 is equal to 93 might be mathmatically correct but the conclusion is rubish. I didn't realize this till one day shortly after getting my car legal to drive over here I was taking off like a bat out of hell it was like I was driving a totally different car and I hadn't done any more performace mods than I had while back in states. I couldn't figure out why the car had soooo much more power, and torque through a much broader band until I realized the only difference in the equation was the change in octane. I am driving my car to Germany this summer for two days around the "Ring" and will have movies to post on NAM when I return. A Mini set up just like mine using state side 93 octane doesn't have a chance in hell against my Mini with UK gas at 99 octane that's how dramatic the difference is. And I don't have to go to some special gas station to get it, it's available from my local Tesco grocery store!

 

My dream is to one day drive my MINI (or any car!) around the 'ring.... must do it some day....

Definitely post videos!

 

I live in CT and used 93 all the time. When I went to the track I used 100. I felt little to no performance gain. I used it to help cool the motor rather then a HP gain.
Something else must be making the dramatic change you feel, most likely the weather.

 

Agreed. It is nice and cool and rainy over on the other side of the pond. Perfect conditions to make more hp.

 

Same here. Everytime I go to Limerock, the morning sessions are run with 93 and at lunch I gas up with the 100. I don't feel any difference.

Of course feel is very subjective. So dyno numbers or track times would be alot more persuasive.

Alan

 

Well the spring and summer temperatures are generally cooler over here but it can get very hot at times as well. The only other factor that might be causing the difference is that I might be driving a lot more aggressively over here, not sure why I would be doing that but that's the only other ingredient that could make a difference. I don't have dyno numbers before I moved over here to draw a comparison from only my "seat of the pants" experience but the difference is way too dramatic and I have been driving sports cars for 40 plus years to know its more than the weather.

 

Then you should know that higher octane does not directly make more HP. If your ECM has for some reason been tuned to run on 100 octane, then you just 'might' feel a small difference.
There used to be times that I would drive my car and swear that it had mysteriously gained 20 hp over night. It just might be something with the SC and our stupid IC location.

I've also dynoed with 104 octane and saw no difference. I did in fact though see a big gain when cold air was blown over the IC.

 

Additives..... Here in the states, octane is based on a RON. In europe all fuels are measured in a very different manner....for example deisel is vastly different than what we see here, much cleaner, higher octane. We won't see the euro spec deisel untill next year. The euro gas is also much cleaner, to the point of compareing apples to oranges.
My bike, 68 Triumph TR6C, runs way better with C12 than 93 Sunoco. It's all about what you put in the cake.....

 

A local Texaco station in town used to have a 100 octane race fuel pump, albeit quite pricey though. I never really noticed a lot of difference with my Viper, but I can see that there may be a distinct difference in the MINI. Unfortunately, they took the pump out a couple of years ago for some reason (probably lack of demand).

-Justyn

 

I just filled up last weekend with the 100 octane from lime rock and it made absolutely no difference at all.

Have to admit I was pretty excited about it then pretty disappointed.

mb

 

In the U.S. we use PON (pump octane number) in europe and the rest of the world use RON. 98 RON = 94 PON it is just the way they are measured but are the exact same gas, minus the additives.

I agree the additives in the U.S. suck, especially alcohol can put a major damper on the fuels energy, in europe they may not be putting as much ethanol in the fuel giving it more energy.

Where is MGear from in the states? UK is very low elevation, if he lived at any higher altitude in the U.S. the power increase he is feeling could just be because of the altitude difference.

 

Unichip w/ 100 octane map You can get it in Illonis for about 3.85/gal.

 

RON= Randum octane number
PON= Pump octane number

In the 50's & 60's RON was posted on the pump ( PON was not invented yet ), gas & the DOT have changed a bunch........ Anyone remember where you could fill up with Ethel??

Mbcoops, how many miles did you drive with the 100 & was it Cam 2 ?