The current problem with fuels in this country is that we only have a RON number on the pumps, but no mention of the ethanol content, which is becomming a bit of a worry.
All Porsche models since the 70's have engines and ECU's which will run with really poor fuels... much poorer than even the worst available in the UK.
However, I was told the other day that many of the 100+ RON fuels at the pumps in the UK achieve their RON rating due to a proportion of ethanol, which for anyone like myself gearing up for the future of internal combustion, is quite a key problem as a 100+ RON fuel with ethanol is a completely different beast to a 100+ RON ethanol free fuel.
The key problem is that a 110 RON fuel with ethanol used to up the RON figure will actually be less fuel efficient and produce much less power on the same engine running 97 RON fuel... And unless you want to up the boost of a forced induction engine to a point of risking destruction of your engine, it would be difficult to benefit from this fuel.
However, if they would put on the pump the % content of ethanol, as well as the RON figure, and if that fuel was consistantly available, then it would be possible to put ethanol content high RON fuels to good use.
Hopefully, in the future with fosil fuels depleating, ethanol fuels will become more widespread and % contents becomming more consistant, as this would have some exciting implications for engine design and ecu mapping which would see some good gains.
The down side, is that at the moment there is a lot of people wasting money on fuels which will be causing them higher fuel consumption and power loss over what they could see if they had just stuck to shell and BP higher octane fuels like BP ultimate.
The other downside to ethanol content in fuels is that there will be a crossover period where some cars will suffer from dangerous fuel leaks, as the ethanol attacks non compatible materials in the fuel system.... This crossover period will be a little like when leaded fuel stopped being the norm and the resulting valve and seat problems seen during that period.
Biofuels are the future, but at the moment, there are a lot of people who are choosing them on the basis of a RON figure hoping for increased performance, but will actually see a loss of performance, no matter what their "seat of the pants" dyno tells them.
