On Jim Healey's online chat in USA Today today I read this:
"But even Porsche's high-strung turbo engine are regular-grade safe. Porsche's chief engine engineer told me, in effect: Are you kidding? We sell these things around the world; they have to be able to run on the worst gas you can imagine.
Octane measuers only the ability of gas to resist detonation. High-octane gas is harder to ignite than low-octane gas is. Thus, you can squeeze high octane tighter, via high compression ratio or blower, without the heat of compression causing pinging or pre-ignition or detonation. If you use low-octane, knock sensors on cars today retard the ignition timing automatically when they 'hear' a ping, to prevent damage. You lose a skosh of power via the retarded timing, but you're unlikely to notice."
I wonder when I could reasonably use low octane gas (89) in my v6 and if it would raise the low end of my usable power band.
My request to Jim to evaluate VAG-COM did not appear.
btw, my 2K mile round trip to Wisconsin was nice with the GLI v6 6 speed. 80-90mph and higher seems do-able all day as long as someone else is going fast 1/4 mile ahead. I saw one pack leader get pulled over for speeding (in VA).
Sam