A detailed analysis of the combustion behavior of eight synthetic gasoline refinery blending components was conducted using a modern charge boosted Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engine and the findings were correlated to fundamental fuel properties such as molecular structure and laminar flame speed. With this knowledge a fuel blending model was formulated that could be used to optimise a synthetic fuel blend according to user defined performance parameters within the constraints of current South African fuel specifications. The optimised fuel blends were validated via engine bench testing and the results confirmed the model's overall validity and the ability to improve commercial synthetic gasoline blend recipes for use in modern spark ignition engines. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.