Aluminum heads help a lot, as would a good cooling system and some kind of outside air induction, that being either a functional cowl hood, or the factory cold air system on the core support. The cooler the air, the better as far as detonation is concerned.
I’m at a little over 11 to one on my Olds engine, and just as an experiment, put a half tank of 89 octane. Obviously I didn’t beat on it, but normal driving I never heard the first rattle. The car runs the same times on premium pump gas as it does with a little race gas. That tells me the engine isn’t octane limited. When I’m pushing that little blue button I make sure there is plenty of good gas in the tank. Race gas is expensive, but not nearly as expensive as shattered pistons!! I think if you pay attention to your tune, and make sure the rest of the engine and truck is up to standards 10 to 1 compression is safe.
