Yes. According to my owner's manual, the 280GE has an 8:1 compression ratio (the 230GE, however, has a 9:1 ratio). That's unnecessarily low in any vehicle used in this country (i.e., USA), and one reason why my newly rebuilt long-block (see my post elsewhere) will have special euro "car" pistons (giving a 9.25:1 ratio), for a major increase in horsepower (9:1 is normal in Euro cars -- this will be a tad higher). I'll probably need high octane fuel, but no matter -- I've always used high octane anyway, only for the increased additive package (detergent, etc.) that I've always felt was more generously added to high octane grades of gas.