Truth About Octane Boosters!!

[evilmak]

This week's 5th Gear carried out a laboratory test of the following products. The results were surprisingly VERY POOR! The conclusion is that cheap Octane boosters in the market don't really give you better performance and there is No such thing as Cheap power! However, they mentioned that using these products over a period of time MAY give you better results but no guarantee. See below the performance gains of the products reviewed:

REDUCED POWER BY 2%

REDUCED POWER BY 2%

REDUCED POWER BY 2%

REDUCED POWER BY 2% & 6% at full throttle!

Edited October 6, 2007 by evilmak

[Watchman]

uuhh.. is reducing power by a negative amount the same as increasing? (if so why dont they just say so)

[Dj shan]

Hey if you keep using it how much performance do you get?

[evilmak]

uuhh.. is reducing power by a negative amount the same as increasing? (if so why dont they just say so)

What they meant was power "reduced" by the given %'s with octane boosters (I corrected the "-" %'s as per your observation). The engine was actually set up in a laboratory and was connected to computers for analysis. They flushed the fuel system prior to adding the above additives so there is no mixing of different boosters. ---click here for the pictures --

Edited October 6, 2007 by evilmak

[GearHead]

well i too watched that particular episode of top gear and did a little bit of reseach with my friends living in aussie where higher octane rated petro is available. well most of them use normal cars with the engine capacities varying from 1.5L to 2litre and according to them they stick to 95 octane petrol since there cars are normal family sedans.finally got some interesting info from one who has a 2005 honda civc GLi (1.7L engine -non VTEC).according to him he has tried both 95 and 95 petrol on his civic and he mentioned that there was better response from the engine with 95 octane fuel compaired to 98.

so according to this what fifth gear s telling could be correct but if you guys have been watching fifth gear for a long time you may remember the episode where they tested different octane rated petrols with different types of cars,performance car(subaru STi) 9 and a normal VW golf. and the results clearly showed a difference ,even though the golf gained little or no increse in HP with higher octane rated petrol(shell optimax) the STi gained a significant HP and a torque gain.

Edited October 6, 2007 by GearHead