We want it all and we don’t want to pay for it. Sound familiar? Of course it does. We’ve all been there.
So when it comes to race fuel, instead of paying for the good stuff, why not buy an additive and mix up your own? You can do that, notes Zachary J. Santner, manager of product…
A friend of mine tried to campaign an F Production Midget using octane boosters. He had to run it rich to keep from burning pistons and if he stalled it on track, it wouldn't start. Ran fine on race gas though.
When we ran the CRX in One Lap back in 2014, E85 was not plentiful enough to complete the trip -- but it was a Mid-Western route. So that meant 91 octane. At 12.5 compression, the car was borderline on 93 and knocked badly on 91 -- especially if lugged at all.
So we carried a case of Torco Accelerator for transits when 91 was the best we could find. Worked a treat. Tracks all had 100 octane at the pump so we were good to go once there.
Octane boosters–picture the brightly colored bottles full of hopes and promises lining the shelves at the local auto parts store–often contain octane-raising aromatics like toluene.
And it's often cheaper to just grab toluene by the gallon at the paint or hardware store.
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
Hey, we mentioned adding toluene, too, in another piece: Toluene or Xylene: Legit low-buck octane boosters?
I have a tune on my car that was written by guys running 94 octane. I only have 93 octane near me.
I ran a third gear pull log on 93. Then, a little while later that day, I ran a third gear pull log on 93 with a bottle of octane booster. Timing was pulled back on the 93 run. It was not when running that same fuel with octane booster. Just one guy's observation. I now just run 100 unleaded race gas.
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