gasoline - ingenious marketing

May 18, 2016 | littlebird

[exDemMom]

It’s a function of the engine’s design. Using a lesser grade than required can destroy your engine. Seriously.

I'm sure that is so. My car says to use premium on a sticker right next to the gas tank opening. But I don't recall seeing anything about using premium in my motorcycle in the owner's manual or on the gas tank opening.

On regular gas, my motorcycle gets over 80 miles per gallon.

[NorthMountain]

He said they had 115 octane aviation gasoline which is not available now.

Correct. Sort of. In WWII, aviation fuels were made up to 150 octane rating. Aircraft engines used superchargers, (more than one in some cases) to massively boost compression ratios and therefore power. Use of low octane gasoline like current 100LL will not allow full use of the superchargers.

[Prov1322]

I vividly remember the neighborhood Sunoco with the blend dial pumps...

[sparklite2]

The Jap Zero of WWII was the premiere fighter plane of the skies in the first couple years of the war. A Zero weighed the same as a modern SUV, but its radial engine put out 950 horsepower. If you can imagine an SUV with 950 horsepower, that’s how potent the Zero was.