The Camaro Club (UK)

Does anyone have any informed wisdom on fuel for an SS? Do we go with 95, or should we use 97?

I have read that the system 'detects' a lower octane and adjusts itself accordingly; with a resultant performance reduction. But I think I'm correct in believing that US fuel is not as high octane as UK/EU.

I don't want to keep pouring the more expensive stuff in if there's no advantage, any ideas please???

there will be a performance advantage to using a higher octane fuel as basically you are getting more of the volatile stuff in the cylinder every bang although your car should drive fine if you put the primark supersaver fuel in, you will just feel a little robbed if that porsche smokes you and you spend the rest of your time wondering if the extra 2 octane would have given you the edge, unless you got the v6 in which performance clearly wasn't on your list of priorities

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1997 30th Anniversary SS SLP
1993 GMC Typhoon

Thanks Twisted, but to pitch the question in another way, think what I'm asking is more about the difference in octane rating between UK and US fuel. It's a given that the car will perform best at a higher octane rated fuel. However, I think there will be a ceiling to this, which is probably the highest octane rated pump gas available in the US.

Think I got the answer, t'internet states:

UK std unleaded "95"octane = is what they call 90/91 octane in the USA
UK "super" "97/99"octane = is what they call 92 /93 octane in the USA

Recommended US fuel is 93 octane -91 may cause knocking (and we don't want any of that thank you!)

So I'll have to continue to bung in the expensive stuff.

Correct. The US owners manual states 93 for best performance, UK manual says 97.

If the lower grade has been used, the car will switch to the low octane table and remain stuck there even if you fill with super.

You need to do the fuse pull trick to reset the fuel tables, then it will reset to the higher grade, just search on the www or youtube for instructions

Thanks for that John. The car's no slouch, but might be a good idea to do the fuse pull, a previous owner may have poured in Regular and it may never have got reset