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No real savings
On several occassions, I was forced to use regular (low octane) gas on a few highway trips in other high performance, 91/93 Octane recommended vehicles, when high test was not available. Although not a strict scientific test I always seemed to lose 2 - 4 MPG with the lower octane. Since the engine and DME were designed to run with high octane I suspect you operate outside the design parameters and thus less efficiently. Maybe if you ran it long enough the DME would fully adjust to the lower octane and your mileage would improve but maybe not. Since the MPG loss is about 10% of normal the cost savings from low test to high test would need to be about 10% for you to break even. So ... there would not be any immediate $$$ savings.
The anti-knock sensor should protect the engine from damage due to knocking unless you were attempting to drive at or near full throttle and pushing redline during acceleration. But I believe you would see more savings by using your cruise control and avoiding hard acceleration to pass or get up to speed. Driving at the speed limit and using cruise would probably be more effective at improving MPG and thus saving more money than using low test fuel.
ATB,
Tom
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