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A study was conducted under the auspices of the Coordinating Research Council, Inc. (CRC) to assess the potential effects of gasoline octane quality on vehicle acceleration performance. Twelve participating laboratories, representing both the oil and the automotive industries, tested a total of 182 vehicles as part of the 1989 CRC Octane Number Requirement Survey. The vehicles consisted of 78 with electronic knock control systems (knock sensors) and 104 without. All testing was performed using the 1989/1990 CRC FBRU fuel series. The results showed that acceleration performance of vehicles with knock sensors was significantly affected by gasoline octane quality.

This paper provides an overview of the blending techniques and analytical methods used to formulate the fuels for Phase I of the Auto/Oil Air Quality Improvement Research Program (AQIRP). Details of the base stocks and final blend compositions and properties are also included. Phase I involves the blending and testing of 30 different fuels in four different fuel matrices. The four matrices included gasoline reformulations, methanol fuels, gasoline oxygenate and RVP effects, and gasoline sulfur effects. Specifications for the gasoline fuels were very tight, with several properties being held constant while varying four main fuel properties. Another goal of the blending program was that the gasolines were to be blended from existing refinery streams and not from pure components. Nine laboratories participated in the certification of the fuels.

A pilot study was conducted under the auspices of the Coordinating Research Council, Inc. (CRC) to assess the potential effects of gasoline octane quality on acceleration performance, fuel economy and driveability in vehicles equipped with electronic spark control systems (knock sensors). Fourteen vehicles were tested by five participating laboratories, representing both the oil and automotive industry, on CRC unleaded reference fuels of varying octane quality (78 to 104 RON). The test vehicles included nine naturally-aspirated and five turbocharged models. The results showed that acceleration performance was the parameter most sensitive to octane quality changes, particularly in the turbocharged models. No significant improvements in fuel economy were found with increasing octane. Drive-ability was not affected by fuel octane within the commercial fuel range, but three vehicles showed degraded driveability with sub-commercial octane fuels.

In 1981 the Australian Transport Advisory Council recommended to the Federal Government that Australia adopt a nationally uniform policy requiring new passenger cars manufactured after January 1, 1986, be designed to operate on unleaded petrol and meet the equivalent of US 1975 emission standards. This paper describes the development of an Australian standard for unleaded petrol with particular relevance to the choice of key parameters such as octane rating, permissible lead content, sulphur and phosphorus content, and colour. It focuses on the major implications for the oil industry including the production of unleaded petrol to meet the standard, its storage and its distribution with particular reference to the changeover from leaded regular to the unleaded grade with nationwide supply by July 1, 1985. The implementation of new quality control procedures are described and future developments are briefly discussed.