Quote:
Originally posted by tritium
Your gasoline might contain more ethanol, for example, and, therefore, have a higher standard octane. Not sure. Are leaded fuels legal over there? The lead additives used in the US were added to cheaply raise octanes -- could be that they are still legal on your side of the Pacific for civilian ground vehicles.
But, I think that you get the general idea. Laws and regulations on emissions and the prices of available octane boosting additives probably influence what octanes the terminals crank out.
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Leaded fuels are now illegal for all private passenger vehicles. It may be a different story for commercial, agricultural and military vehicles, but the petrol stations no longer offer leaded fuel at the pumps.
There was a huge controversy regarding Ethanol over the last year or so. Many of the Petrol Stations/Fuel suppliers were diluting their petrol with ethanol to cut costs. Many consumers found their cars started to ping and knock due to the effect the ethanol had on their engines. Everyone complained because there was no standardised/enforced way of knowing the level of ethanol in the fuel they were purchasing. The topic was covered extensively on 60 minutes/exposay type shows.
The govt finally stepped in and put restrictions on the amount of ethanol that could be used. I think they also made it mandatory to specify clearly if the fuel someone was purchasing contained ethanol or not.
After that, most of the stations stopped the practice, and proudly displayed signs saying "100% petrol. No ethanol used" to restore consumer confidence.
Quote:
Originally posted by Moonduck
Wow, all I know is that 90% of the time when I see what Holden, Ford, and others are bringing out in Oz, I weep at the anemic, FWD garbage we're seeing here. Might be a "grass is always greener on the other side" feeling, but it looks like you Aussies have some really nice stuff cruising your roads.
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I always thought 'American Muscle' was what it was all about over there! We have a huge Ford Vs. Holden battle going on here at the moment, with each manufacturer trying to outdo each other. I think the current winner, in terms of overall performance is the Ford Falcon GT-P. A V8 that produces 290kW @5,500RPM in stock trim. {Insert Tim the Toolman Taylor Grunting noise}
I guess it would be hard extracting that sort of power if you had to run 92 Octane.
Quote:
Originally posetd by Peryn
No, the US in general doesn't have more high performance cars. Typically, our higher end sports sedans (mustangs, etc. ) are underpowered compared to foreign models. This is due to the US having very strict emissions requirements. Other countries (such as Australia) dont have requirements quite as tough as ours, and thus can run dirtier cars. With that increase in pollution come a very nice increase in power. But to get that power, the cars REQUIRE a "high performance" gasoline. Your engines typically have a higher compression ration for better performance. They can do this through different engine parts, or forced induction. To keep the gas from igniting early under these conditions, higher grade gas is used. If higher compression engines are more standard in Aust. than in the US, it would make sense for higher grade gas to also be standard.
I have never lived in Australia, so im not positive, just speaking from what i've noticed
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You are correct. But us Aussies dont have it all. Alot of our High Perfoamnce imports (mainly from Japan) also come detuned.
Alot of performance vehicles from Japan are tuned to run at 100 Octane, so cars like the WRX STi that are imported into Oz have been detuned so that they run better and more reliaby with 98 Octane availble here.