High Octane Fuel
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High-octane fuel allows an engine to run more smoothly and with higher effect, but engines not built for it suffer additional breakdowns and require more maintenance.
High-octane fuel is very rare. It must be acquired from certain experimental refineries, and supplies are limited. There is no way you will find it in the field if you have not arranged for deliveries. In practice, this means it can only be used if you have high-level industrial or government contacts and operate either from a single aerodrome or from a specially supplied zeppelin.
A plane using high-octane Fuel gets a +1 bonus to Maximum Speed, but takes a fracture in the engine location each time they accelerate up to this speed.
Certain hi-powered engines might be built for high-octane fuel. I suppose these would be the engines that power the Tempest, Phantom, Misericorde and their equals. Such engines would probably have more power than regular engines, but run poorly on low-octane fuel. Inflict one fracture on them for each turn spent at maximum speed (or above).
-- Edited quote of FPilot from the Crimson Skies Forum --
Air Force magazine September 1985 goes into detail about the invention of 100 Octane fuel and Doolittle's role. Jimmy Doolittle was one of the main figures in the development of high-octane fuel. Doolittle joined Shell Oil in 1930 at their branch in St. Louis. The actual research was done at McCook Field (wherever that was). A parallel effort towards 100 Octane fuel was headed by Eddie Aldrin of Standard Oil of New Jersey.