Enthusiasts love their . While loving is a big part of the time enthusiasts spend with their cars, the goal is often to make the cars go faster than the manufacturer intended. While you’re spending many thousands of dollars driving your car, you could just spend a little more at the gas station and get a decent horsepower boost. The 2023 Mazda CX-50 makes nearly 30 more horsepower using .
Does high-octane fuel make more horsepower?
, most of which are fairly complicated pieces of hardware specifically tuned to do a certain thing. However, you can increase the horsepower of your engine in some softer ways.
produces 227 hp from its turbocharged engine. MotorTrend wanted to play with their year-old tester to see if they could easily tweak the amount of power the crossover made. They found that using 93 octane boosted the horsepower from 227 hp and 310 lb-ft of torque to 256 hp and 320 torque.
Did high-octane fuel make Mazda faster?
Took the car to their test track to see what was what. Often, when manufacturers list two different horsepower ratings on different fuels, the cars will either have a turbocharger or a supercharger. These two performance devices essentially lock more air into the engine, which, by definition, produces more horsepower.
MotorTrend explains that higher-octane fuels take the “hit” better. Knocking is a sign of predestination. The fight against the knocks allows for more thrust and forward movement, thus more horsepower and torque. Naturally aspirated engines can only advance the spark and perhaps the valve timing a little, and that can’t alter power nearly as much.
While many automakers promise horsepower jumps like this one in turbocharged or supercharged cars, MotorTrend found Mazda’s promises held true. Running 91 octane in the 2023 Mazda CX-50 causes the car to hit 60 mph, 0.04 seconds faster than running 87 octane. Even more to the point, MotorTrend found that the 91-octane CX-50 2.5 Turbo did the quarter-mile in 15.1 seconds at 91.3 mph. The same SUV with 87 took 15.4 seconds to 89.7 mph. The most interesting part of this data is that most of the horsepower increase is said to occur in the 0-30 mph zone. That means this is the power drivers will feel in day-to-day driving.
How much extra does it cost you to run premium per year?
MotorTrend did the numbers on how much extra premium fuel costs to run. If you drive 12,000 miles a year and spend 55% of your time in the city and the rest on the highway, you’ll only spend an extra $389 a year on gas. Sure, if you like the extra punch of high-octane gas, you may see slightly worse gas mileage. MT is basing these numbers on average gas prices in the US at the time of writing, which is $3.44 for regular and $4.25 for premium.
It’s pretty cool to have the ability to perk up your turbocharged 2023 Mazda CX-50 anytime you want, with a few extra bucks in the gas tank. Undoubtedly, anyone spending more at the pump to get a few more horsepower is likely to bury their foot in the accelerator a little more than normal. Chances are your gas mileage will decrease, but sometimes you have to live a little.
