In January 2016, Petron opened up a whole new world of excitement for petrolheads in Malaysia with the launch of Blaze 100 Euro 4M fuel, which was the highest octane fuel on sale in our country and still is to this day. But what exactly is the difference between this so-called premium fuel and RON95 and RON97, and what difference does it make?
Besides retailing at a much higher price, RON (Research Octane Number) 100 fuel has a higher octane rating that makes it more resistant to higher compression before detonating. This means when the engine is fed with RON 100 fuel, it is less likely to suffer from the dreaded premature combustion or ‘knocking’.
“Will my car perform better with RON 100 fuel?”
Well, it depends. If you drive a high-performance car, by all means spend that extra cash and pump in RON 100 into the tank to unleash full potential of the engine. This is because most high-performance engines today are tuned to have higher compression ratios and therefore work well with high octane fuel.
That being said, the 2.0-litre VTEC Turbo engine in the Malaysian market Honda Civic Type R (FK8) can run on RON 95 petrol but makes 10 PS less than the JDM version. Project leader Hideki Kakinuma told us that putting higher octane fuel will not result in higher power output, so that’s that.
What you need to avoid is using fuel with an octane rating that is lower than what your engine can handle as this can lead to the aforementioned knocking, reduced performance or worse, damage to the internals. Check the owner’s manual if you are unsure about the recommended octane rating for your engine.
But if you drive a normal car, a Perodua Myvi or a Honda City, for example, RON 95 fuel is good enough to keep the engine running without any problem. Pumping in higher octane fuel might give the engine more oomph but we doubt you can feel the extra punch, especially in normal driving conditions.
So, is there really a demand for RON 100 fuel here and do Malaysians really need it? Perhaps, but it may be too small considering the fact that many, if not all, sports cars and supercars run just fine on the widely available RON 97. This might explain why only Petron is selling RON 100 petrol and other major brands such as Shell, Petronas, BHP and Caltex are happy with RON 97 as their highest octane offering.
