101 octane gas

[swinsoneric]

How good is 101 octane gas, i live in New York not to far from New Jersey and i stopped at a gas station and saw that they had 101 octane racing gas. Would this gas make a difference as far as the car driving better ?

[bobss396]

If you have a performance car that requires a higher octane you should notice a difference. But for a normal street car with a lower compression ratio and stock timing, it would be a waste.

[ice745]

Gasoline is comes up as crude oil, they are different length hydro-carbon chains. Gasoline is actually compised of a few of these: heptane (7 carbons long), octane (8), nonane (9), decane (10), and Ether (11). Hexane (6) can rarely be found in low octane fuels, and anything above decane is rarely found in the 80% octane range. Each have a different boiling point and are seperated by evaporation at refineries.
Lead was originally added in fuel because it greatly boosted octane rating, but it also greatly polluted the earth (there was actually a layer of Lead around the earth in the atmosphere), and clogged up exhaust systems easy. The longer the hydrocarbon chain, the more it can be compressed without spontaneously and prematurely combusting. The octane rating just tells us how much the gas can be compressed without combusting. 101% octane and above will mostly be comprised of octane (obviously) and nonane, decane, and ether because 1% volume of each of these counts as more than 1% volume of octane (since they can be compressed more without combusting).
100% Octane and more are generally used in Airplane engines (airplanes are still allowed to use lead by the way).
If you're driving a Chevy Malibu, you won't need high octane gas, unless its from the 80's or before. Car manufacturers of passenger cars try to keep the compression suitable for regular (87% octane). I would read the owner's manual to be sure what octane Chevy recommends. To be a little bit safer and help reduce misfires and premature bursts, get the next one up (eg 89%); along with fresh spark plugs and ignition wires.
The increase in performance generally isn't noticeable by going higher in octane than what your car recommends, unless your having misfires and premature bursts. The higher octane fuel is only offered for the case where older cars, or today's sports cars increase compression to get more bang. The logic behind wanting higher octane to boost performance is more that you want to need higher octane, and you actually want more compression (which I don't know how easy it is to change, I'm not that into cars)

[swinsoneric]

Thank you ice.