Sunoco blend-o-matic gas

[duncang]

After posting the Steppingwolf and Josefus songs got me to remember about buying that gas. I would run normal gas (15-17 cents per gallon) during the week. But Thursday I'd hit the Sunoco and put in the "good" stuff. For street racing through the week end. They offered 8 grades of gas.

For those who never heard of a sunoco blend-o-matic they sold some really high octane gas compared to other stations.

Here's one of the gas pumps.
http://www.oldgas.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=552609

I had 2 cars I would toss some of it in. A 1967 400 cubic inch 4 on the floor gto. With mandatory hood pins. (Just kidding about mandatory but they were in at the time.) And a 1964 chevy impala with a 327 and 4 on the floor. Both had the kind of normal upgrades holley, glass packs, chrome, etc.

[TexasProgresive]

1. We knew about it but Sunoco wasn't available in Houston

I was running 12.5 to 1 compression and had to be careful what gas I used. Of the "high" octane brands Texaco Sky Chief was consistently good without pinging. The worst premium gas was ironically named No Nox (Gulf Oil). Every time I bought it my engine would knock. Sunoco 260 which was the upper end of the blend was close to the same octane as Avgas. I knew some guys who were at 13+ to 1 compression would buy their gas at the airport going for the 130 octane super high test. Sunoco 260 was 104 to 106 octane. Currently Sunoco 260 race fuel is rated at 104.

Using higher octane fuel than an engine requires does not give added performance. It just sending money out the tail pipe. It a grade of gas doesn't cause pinging or knocking that's the one to go. If you want to really determine if higher octane is performance enhancing used the best dynamometer test there is, 1380 feet, a timed quarter mile run.

[duncang]

2. For awhile in Houston they had one

It was on Old Galveston south of Milby Park about 2-3 miles. It wasn't Sunoco for very long. At the time it really didn't matter if it did very much. It was almost like putting that Holley sticker on the window. That had to make a car go faster. My gto it really didn't help. The chevy 327 had some major engine work and it helped some. It was more the cool factor even at the time. Along with getting gas at Hobby Airport. I could get that free sometimes according to who was working there. Just had to make sure I didn't have to much of it in the tank or the same knocking would get me.

[Cooley Hurd]

3. I've always wanted a Goat, any year!

My built-from-the-ground-up rod was a 1979 Camaro Berlinetta. It came with a 305 that I ultimately swapped with a 400 with a Holley double-pumper on an Edelbrock hi-rise manifold, performance cam, headers and dual exhaust with Cherry Bombs. Very late one night on a long, deserted straightaway, I punched it and got her up to 130+ mph (as high as the speedometer went plus extra to the peg).