"Big John" wrote in message ...
Richard

It's probaby all Nitro with a touch of lead to stop detonation G

Maybe some of our 'oil' company types can explain how the 115-145 was
made in WWII? We called it 115-145 octane not some other name.

From the Wikipedia:

One interesting historical issue involving octane rating took place during WWII. Germany received the vast majority of
their oil from Romania, and set up huge distilling plants in Germany to produce petrol from it. In the US the oil was not
"as good" and the oil industry instead had to invest heavily in various expensive boosting systems. This turned out to
be a huge blessing in disguise. US industry was soon delivering fuels of ever-increasing octane ratings by adding more
of the boosting agents, with cost no longer a factor during wartime. By war's end their aviation fuel was commonly 130
to 150 octane, which could easily be put to use in existing engines to deliver much more power by increasing the
compression delivered by the superchargers. The Germans, relying entirely on "good" petrol, had no such industry,
and instead had to rely on ever-larger engines to deliver more power. The result is that British and US engines
consistently outperformed German ones during the war, playing no small part in the defeat of the Luftwaffe.