What do people do for gasoline for vintage muscle cars?

[Art Mann]

I live fairly close to a drag race track and it is easy to buy 102 octane racing gasoline at a few nearby stations. I believe it may have tetraethyl lead in it.

[Wayne Lomman]

Flashlube is a product commonly available here here in Australia for pre-unleaded engines. It's a fuel tank additive. Works well. We aren't afflicted with ethanol laced fuel thankfully. Cheers

[robert baccus]

Lead was originally used in gas. to preveny preignition (knocking) and was all that was added for thatuntil the catalytic converter was adopted in the late 70's. It ruined them. It's ability to prevent knock was denoted as octane--a pure number. It gave no more power than pure gas but allowed higher compression ratios which raised power without knocking. Hond introduced the stratified charge engine which allowed regular gas when all other cars required no-lead gas at a higher price--I owned 2 of those Accords--they had 3 valves heads!! I do use some lead additive in my 48 model Cadet cub tractor.

[Kev Williams]

First thing anyone with a 'vintage' vehicle should do is change out all the fuel lines. This is because the main problem with alcohol in gas is that it attacks the older style rubber fuel lines. New fuel hose is pretty much alcohol proof. Another problem with alcohol is it absorbs water, but it's very hard for water to find its way into a gas tank. If you ever find water in your gas, unless someone put it there on purpose, the usual source is the gas station you bought it from.

So as long as you have good fuel lines, just run premium unleaded in your vintage car. And a good lead substitute for old engines, is to add a tablespoon or two of Marvel Mystery Oil to a full tank of gas. All lead ever did for the inside of an engine is help lubricate the valves, the Marvel (or your favorite brand of similar oil) will help do the same. I know a lot of guys with Turbo Buick's that make their own race fuel by adding xylene to premium unleaded, and they add Marvel to the gas to compensate for xylene's lack of lubricating properties.

Anyway- trips to the airport for gas may be fun, but in most cases probably not necessary

[Rod Sheridan]

I only have old bikes, they're able to run on unleaded premium fuel with only exhaust seat wear as an issue.

That can be corrected with the installation of hardened seats, I haven't bothered because I don't ride them enough to make it an issue..Rod.