How are you playing your precious MONO Vinyl?

@elliottbnewcombjr 

A quick search lead me to this Car & Driver article. I am sure you can find more articles around the benefits of using a higher octane. I was bit surprised to see the results for Ford F-150. 
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a28565486/honda-cr-v-vs-bmw-m5-ford-f-150-dodge-charger/

https://engineering.mit.edu/engage/ask-an-engineer/whats-the-difference-between-premium-grade-and-regular-gasoline/

High mileage cars tend to lose a little compression and therefore lose the requirement for high octane fuel. I don’t know whether this applies to Elliot’s report or not. 

@billstevenson 

Thank you for sharing your perspective on two carts and the genre. Like you, I listened to Jazz primarily as well. 

@lewm 

 

High mileage cars tend to lose a little compression and therefore lose the requirement for high octane fuel. I don’t know whether this applies to Elliot’s report or not. 

I drove and tracked BMWs for some years, including my favorite E46 M3 SMG. The BMW engines that require high-octane do that for a reason. Among other things they have a special valve system that requires it. Running regular octane forces the ECU to adjust timing and that's not optimal for the valves. It also doesn't have the engine cleaning that high octane has. We tried to tell my wife's friend who bought a BMW and scoffed at running high octane. Years later she faced a $2000 valve adjustment and maintenance long before anything like they would have even been necessary.

I only said “high mileage “. Was thinking >100,000 miles. Of course different engines react differently. I would not follow Elliot’s advice with a new or near new car. Plus, I’m not a BMW guy.