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With all the talk of performance vehicles, parts, tunes and upgrades, inevitably the question of octane is going to come up. Many performance vehicles and upgrades necessitate the need for a higher octane, such as 93. The problem here is that not everywhere has the higher octanes.

For example, much of Colorado does not have any higher that 91 and in some places, you would be hard pressed to find much over 89. And of course, in such places, if you want much higher octane that what is readily available, you are certainly going to have to pay for it.

One option is always to have your vehicle de-tuned to accept the lower octane, but number one, that can be rather expensive, and number two, it can be difficult to find a dyno tuner in some parts of the US.

To make-up for lack of octane, may enthusiasts will turn to octane boosters to make-up the difference. The problem, here, is with all of the different formula used you never know if you are going to get a half of point or two points.

They have done a lot of research on this and NOS brand is actually fairly reliable for 2 to 3 extra points. 104+ has been around awhile as well and gets consistently close to 2 points increase in octane per dosage. Turbo 108 is a brand that is often recommended by professionals as well.

There are those however that will tell you that you should never use a booster to compensate for lack of octane. But we are here to let you in on a different thought that isn’t always talked about… altitude.

There is a reason that some places have lower octane than others. It has been said that for every 1,000 feet above sea level, the octane requirement drops by one point. This explains why Colorado does not have 93, because quite simply, it is not necessary for most engines… even moderately performance oriented ones.

Unless you have a race car that must be on a very strict diet of racing fuel levels of octane, generally you can use the lower octane level in high altitudes without the use of any booster and the vehicle will be completely within the realm of safety.

Of course, it can be extremely bad to run a high performance vehicle on gas well below the limits it has been tuned for because serious engine damage can occur. High altitude will not be as favorable to turbo and ultra high compression engines.

Always listen for engine ping while under load when using a lower octane than recommended… and if you are traveling cross-country, be particularly aware of changes to the engines performance. A good rule of thumb is to run the highest pump octane sold in the area you are traveling through.