GTSLOW

I just cant believe that ford tuned these engines to run on 87. Yeas its cheaper at the pump, but this is a sports car, right, isnt it. My vette cuts timing if you use under 93 octane. You cant even always find 93 octane, usually 92. Using higher ocatane fuel wont hurt anything but your pocket in these cars.Stock tune that is.

callahan

87 unless you have a custom tune requiring more octane OR if you are getting pre-detonation pinging on 87 octane.

Sonic Boom NH

I completely understand your point but allow me to take a stab at explaining why I think Ford did what they did.

First the Mustang is marketed to a different crowd of people which is also a much larger crowd then for the Vett. Another important point is Ford will sale many more Mustangs then GM will the Vett so now you have to consider CAFÉ standards (fuel mileage).

The Mustang will get more fuel mileage with a lower octane then a higher octane because the lower octane program will make less horsepower, less horsepower generally means better fuel mileage.

Now I am not comparing the factory 87 tune to a professionals 91 octane tune because, generally speaking, the professional 91 octane tune will get you better fuel mileage along with more horsepower.

The Ford Lightning came from the factory with a 91 octane tune but just to prove my point about a professional tune you could get a tuner to still get some more horsepower and fuel mileage out of a Lightning with a 91 octane tune.

The factory tune is pretty fat on fuel, at least it was for the Lightning’s, so as to have the least amount of problems, specifically warranty issues. I would be willing to bet had the Lightning came with an 87 tune it would have got better fuel mileage (less horsepower as well) from the factory but since Ford only produced approx. 5,000 per year it didn’t really affect the CAFÉ standards like the Mustangs would and will since they sell untold thousands per year and Mustangs are not marketed like the Lightning’s or Vetts as in marketing them because of horsepower and performance. The Mustang’s V6 and GT’s are marketed as a nice performance vehicle but NOT high performance like the Lightning, Vett or the GT500 for that matter.

There’s my stab at it…