Fuel octane confusion.

[Stand-in]

Finally after some effort I cam acrost a owners manual online for my car, and found out some more about what it requires for fuel.
https://imgur.com/a/cXlR8f2
So I suppose it is safe to use regular? I understand I would need to drop timing, but I would not be apposed to the slightly higher horsepower it offers. How strange.

[Jeroen]

I'd say trial and error, very much depends on how you use the car. Higher octane usually means the engine will feel stronger, but if you don't use it like that, you may not feel a difference. Same for pinging, which usually occurs when pushing the car a bit harder. You may not experience it at all. Or not experience that during regular use, but you may get pinging when driving in the mountains or when you are carrying more than average weight. You can defo try yourself, and see if you feel differences between fuel qualities. Just don't keep pushing once the engine starts pinging or you may end up with an expensive engine failure.

[Stand-in]

I suppose I should give more info, from what i have heard 87 octane (US) is equivalent to 91 octane in most European counties. I had some confusion regarding the fact that what we call octane is actually AKI anti knock index, kind of how people in Europe v the US talk about the flat part of the cylinder head above the cylinder, Quench v Squish. Importantly these seem to be kind of the same but are on different scales.

[Jeroen]

That is right, different but related scales. When you like to push your car, you may want a higher octane fuel, remember that these engines were designed when we had much higher octane levels. Personally I would always use premium unleaded as a minimum.