A question from racerchicks.com reader Al:

Question: Can running a cup of Aviation fuel in 5 gallons Regular pump gas, using a 350 4 bolt main in our dirt track stock car boost the octane level, and in turn power? And will any possible damage occur?

Answer: What grade of pump gas are you starting with and what grade/type of aviation fuel are you intending to add? Not all aviation fuel is gas; for example jet fuel is kerosene and there are various grades of it. Avgas comes in different grades like car-gas does -- plus the octane rating is different on avgas. It has to be stable at altitude. If you are adding avgas to car-gas, there won't be any damage by strictly doing this, unless you are running a catalyst because avgas still has lead as a knock suppressant. Whether you get any benefit depends more on why you intend on doing this. Airplanes will run on car gas and car engines will burn avgas but they do tend to run better on the fuel that they were designed to use. An engine will only make more power with more octane if the engine can take advantage of the octane. If you need a fix for some pre-ignition problem - you need to address the problem or you might be better spending the cash on some real racing fuel where they guarantee the octane...then you can build the engine to take advantage of what you have available in the fuel

For more info on fuel continued.....Why do race cars run on different fuel?