That may be true with a stock tune, which I also have access to , but I believe BlackBear Performance must optimize their tunes for the different octane levels. That's probably why I couldn't tell the difference, at least I assume. I did ask Justin at BB if I ran the 91+ tune with regular gas, would it cause problems. He said it would probably just suffer performance-wise. Are you saying the factory runs a dual tune or some kind of variable tune in the PCM? I don't see how that could be possible, but maybe a tune more likely based on the lowest octane.
Thats correct. It has 2 timing tables. It calls them "low octane" and "high octane". The high octane table has more timing advance. A common practice of tuners is to copy the high table to the low side so as the computer shifts between the two its actually shifting to the exact same table. Its a trick to keep one single table instead of two for consistent performance. Also, the tables, both of them, are conservative. And if the high table is conservative, then you could imagine how bad the low table is. I copy the high to low then add quite a bit of timing to the part and WOT regions....big difference in throttle feel and power. I also run 93. Remember, you still have knock sensors to retard timing if they sense pinging, but I have had none so far.