All things the same will a car running higher octane run faster?

[Rafs-T-Type]

I know a couple mustang guys that fill up with high octane for the track. They aren't bumping the timing and they aren't running higher compression so does the higher octane really make a difference and if so how much?

 

[forcefed3.8's]

No unless detonation was present with the lower octane.

 

[TurboDave]

Agreed. Octane is a knock supressent. If there's no knock, then there's absolutely no advantage.

 

[Grumpy]

Agreed. Octane is a knock supressent. If there's no knock, then there's absolutely no advantage.

I have to add if its way to much octane the car will slow down !!

 

[Nick Micale]

I know a couple mustang guys that fill up with high octane for the track. They aren't bumping the timing and they aren't running higher compression so does the higher octane really make a difference and if so how much?

The new Mustangs will run faster with higher octane as the computer WILL advance timing since the knock threshold will be higher.

The Ford engineers have told me this info when discussing the 5.0 Coyote and the twin-turbo Ecoboost engines. A couple local 5.0 Mustang racers have verified this at the track with at least .2th increase in the 1/4 mile.

In our case, running higher octane fuel will safely allow higher boost, hence more HP! I have seen some GN's pick up over 1/2 second just with "exotic" race fuel.

 

[granatl]

Building on Nick's comments, I will speak on behalf of the 5th Gen Camaros. The computer has two fuel/timing maps. If it detects too much knock for some duration, it will drop into the less aggressive map (presumably for 87 octane). The annoying thing is, it never returns to the more aggressive map on its own. We have to pull a fuse for HOURS to get the thing to jump back into the other map.