It appears that octane ratings between the US and Europe are not as wide 
as they appear.  Read article from Wikipedia about this

  The most common type of octane rating worldwide is the Research Octane 
Number (RON). RON is determined by running the fuel in a test engine with 
a variable compression ratio under controlled conditions, and comparing 
these results with those for mixtures of isooctane and n-heptane.
There is another type of octane rating, called Motor Octane Number (MON) 
or the aviation lean octane rating, which is a better measure of how the 
fuel behaves when under load. MON testing uses a similar test engine to 
that used in RON testing, but with a preheated fuel mixture, a higher 
engine speed, and variable ignition timing to further stress the fuel's 
knock resistance. Depending on the composition of the fuel, the MON of a 
modern gasoline will be about 8 to 10 points lower than the RON. Normally 
fuel specifications require both a minimum RON and a minimum MON.
In most countries (including all of Europe and Australia) the "headline" 
octane that would be shown on the pump is the RON, but in the United 
States, Canada and some other countries the headline number is the average 
of the RON and the MON, sometimes called the Anti-Knock Index (AKI), Road 
Octane Number (RdON), Pump Octane Number (PON), or (R+M)/2. Because of the 
8 to 10 point difference noted above, this means that the octane in the 
United States will be about 4 to 5 points lower than the same fuel 
elsewhere: 87 octane fuel, the "regular" gasoline in the US and Canada, 
would be 91-92 in Europe. However most European pumps deliver 95 (RON) as 
"regular", equivalent to 90-91 US (R+M)/2, and even deliver 98 (RON) or 
100 (RON).

Michael Berkowitz 
Project Manager, CGS Application Solutions
707 Wilshire Blvd Suite 1900
Los Angeles, CA  90017-3509
T: 213 614-1308
F: 213 614-2028
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Michael Baier <[log in to unmask]> 
Sent by: HP-3000 Systems Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
12/13/2007 12:26 PM
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Michael Baier <[log in to unmask]>


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Re: [HP3000-L] OT was: Replacing Cell phone.... bad company marketing






Craig,

thats what it is.

Same reason with regular gasoline.
In Germany regular has at least 91octane. Thats usually Premium here while 

regular is as low as 85.5 octane.
Super is 98 octane. Hardly available in the US.
Thas a problem for BMW and Mercedes and the Italian sportscars.



On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:24:19 -0800, Craig Lalley <[log in to unmask]> 
wrote:

>--- Ray Shahan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Craig, it's very likely that the diesels can't pass the emission
>> standards over here?
>>
>
>I bet it is more likely because the quality of diesel fuel here is too 
low.
>
>-Craig
>
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