Quote Originally Posted by exodus
[nitpick]

You can advance the timing as much as you want and it's not going to detonate. Traditionally detonation/knocking is the air/fuel mixture igniting without a spark (too much heat due to compression). The "knocking" bit happens when you have preignition due to heat... and secondary ignition due to the spark plug. When the two flame fronts collide, you get a "knock."

[/nitpick]

With advanced ignition timing you want to use a higher octane (slower burning) fuel so that the flame front doesn't hit the piston before it's TDC, to prevent damage to the rod/piston/bearing. This will generally push your peak power to a lower rpm.
lol thank you...i noticed that you posted whilst i was posting lol. i had a couple discussions with peers and it definantly helped and your explanation is the best so i applaud you. lol i guess my argument is...how many pony's are you actually gaining...and is it really worth the xtra 20-40 cents a gallon in gas.

on a side note i've lost alot of respect for ppl that claim they know about cars that really go to a shop and think that every performance part is gonna give them a set X amount of horse. but i'm come to find that really to gain that power you have to have it running with something else and have the engine balanced in a sense...