I recently read an extensive breakdown on fuel and octane in our market today.
The basic summary is very familiar with the article posted. The report stated that one of octanes primary functions is to prevent pinging. It does this by increasing the resistance to ping under combustion.
Octane in gas is mixed via the 50/50 ratio. What this basically means is that if you were to take 10 gallons of 108 octane race gas, and mix it with 10 gallons of 91 octane pump gas you will get the average of both octanes in your tank, yielding a net gain of roughly 8.5 octane and giving you a full 20 gallon tank of roughly 99.5 octane gas to drive on.
The octane booster you buy in bottles are designed usually around a "full tank" of gas, which on todays cars is between 12-18 gallons. The actual net gain of octane is usually LESS than 3 total octane, and the ratio at which it is mixed is very poor. In other words if you have a 12oz bottle of octane boost dumped into an 18 gallon tank, think about the true likely hood that every blast of fuel into your engine will benefit from that bottle of octane boost.
The reality is that isn't the case and that the 12oz bottle will mix-unevenly and in turn you are not really gaining the benefits of having "truely" higher octane, but moreso a chance of having higher octane on one revolution of an engines combustion.
Again remember that octanes primary function is to increase the resistance to ping under combustion. If your engine isn't pinging, there is no need to buy higher octane gas.
How octane is often mis-understood and myth'd to "create more power" is false.
What octane allows you to do is increase the compression ratio (which is where your power comes from). Under higher compression ratios you are more likely to have pinging. To reduce this, you run higher octane gas and hence the myth of octane = power is false.
Increased compression = more power = more chance of ping. Octane increases your resistance to ping, and helps you towards the goal of happy engine life
-B