Anyone tried UnLeaded Racing Gas?

[LANDLORD]

Here in California our Premium is only 91 octane. This is of course the minimum acceptable for the X6M. The manual states that 93 octane would be preferred. This means that I am sure to be losing some performance due to the lack of octane. My brother can get 93 back in Tennessee.

I have located fuel mixing charts that show how much unleaded 100 octane racing gas you can blend with your normal fuel, to arrive at a predicted octane level. I will be consuming some racing gas in the future to see what the difference in performance is, and how noticeable it is. My experience with turbo cars is that they love the burning qualities and extra octane of racing gas, so it should be a nice difference.

I am sure I will like the smell coming out of the pipes! I love the sweet smell of racing gas. I totally spanked a guy in his Subaru WRX STi turbo on Christmas day, and I could smell the gas that was in his car, which made me more interested to harrass him. We had a little give and take on the freeway, where I showed him I could pass him at any time in the blink of an eye! Too much fun.

[gods_kitchen]

Would love to see the look on his face when he is passed by a 'SUV'. Go get some VP and get a custom tune!

[LANDLORD]

No custom tune for me. I do not trust anyone but the experienced BMW engineers to mess with the computer programming. The computer programming for this vehicle far exceeds any other person or entity having the knowledge to mess with it, period.

[NYCGarbagePrince]

Originally Posted by LANDLORD

No custom tune for me. I do not trust anyone but the experienced BMW engineers to mess with the computer programming. The computer programming for this vehicle far exceeds any other person or entity having the knowledge to mess with it, period.

Logically speaking, you are right. However, if you knew the industry, you would know that the big companies use private companies as consultants and often times contract them to do the tuning for their automobiles. AMG and M use private contractors throughout their tuning process. That doesn't mean every company that offers a tune is of this caliber. But there are some that are very very talented.

[Northern X5M]

If you don't tune for the race gas then it will not offer any real gains.

[LANDLORD]

Since I can only get 91 octane, if the computer is adjusting for that versus the recommended 93 octane, then with a blend that increases the octane to 93, the computer should then adjust for the better fuel situation.

All any so called "tune" does is try to increase boost and fuel flow while adjusting timing to increase horsepower. The threat of detonation and issues with cylinder head gaskets because of this is a big concern, not to mention what it could do to the pistons.

The factory can run engines at 100% load for weeks on end to test durability, and they do! I don't believe any "tuner" has ever done that.

I value my warranty, but I can understand when others don't care, and want to play. I have personally done damage while playing with things like extra boost and nitrous and have learned expensive lessons. This car runs too good and is already well tuned and from what I understand on this forum, the half-shaft's can not handle much more power.

[itsme123]

Originally Posted by LANDLORD

Since I can only get 91 octane, if the computer is adjusting for that versus the recommended 93 octane, then with a blend that increases the octane to 93, the computer should then adjust for the better fuel situation.

All any so called "tune" does is try to increase boost and fuel flow while adjusting timing to increase horsepower. The threat of detonation and issues with cylinder head gaskets because of this is a big concern, not to mention what it could do to the pistons.

The factory can run engines at 100% load for weeks on end to test durability, and they do! I don't believe any "tuner" has ever done that.

I value my warranty, but I can understand when others don't care, and want to play. I have personally done damage while playing with things like extra boost and nitrous and have learned expensive lessons. This car runs too good and is already well tuned and from what I understand on this forum, the half-shaft's can not handle much more power.

I have to say, I am with Landlord on this one. I've been very tempted to just do an upload to get an easy 60+ horses, but the long term reliability and the warranty may suffer. I too have learned expensive lessons by playing with different upgrades. To be honest, M is doing a pretty decent job for a warrantied beast. Of course for track and track days the focus is different. Maybe I am growing too old and conservative