Originally Posted by Modshack

Well.......That's not entirely true. With today's adaptive ECU's, the knock sensor will allow the advance of timing up to the point of detonation then back off slightly for maximum power and efficiencies. Higher octane allows more timing to be advanced with a result in slightly more performance. Cooler Intake temps also allow this advance. I've posted numerous charts and graphs on this in the past so I'll spare you that. The 370 ECU has proven to be very adaptive which is one reason it responds so well to mods without re-tuning and will respond to higher octanes as well, at least up to the max adjustment range within the ECU programming. . As an example from the Audi camp, the difference between a 93 octane program and a 100 octane program on a 1.8T motor is roughly 15-20 hp. The differences between the programs are are primarily timing advances...