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I'm gonna let you guys in on a little secret... if you turn the heater on full blast while the car's sitting on the grid, you'll cool it off in a big big hurry. Now I'm sure that sounds a little counter-intuitive to some... but running the coolant through the heater core blows air over it, the heat transfers into the air and out of the coolant. Its good for a drop from 210 to about 175 in 5 minutes. Its wise to open the windows and get out of the car while you do it, popping the hood is good too.
Your dummy dash gauge won't notice it, but mine does... and the cooler the car is, the better it runs and the more power it makes, however little more that is.

 
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in the grid?!?!?!

 
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so you discovered the heater cooling down the motor trick eh? my car was a oven on our hot run 2 weeks ago. I think everyone on the grid had their hoods popped

 
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Well I learned about it a couple weeks ago at an event... today, it just happened to be warm enough that it did something.

 
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Haha, this was one of the first "tricks" I learned about with my first datsun. Funny to hear it used as a "trick" now instead of as routine over-heating avoidance. Good idea Boiler.

 
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I've heard you should do that if you're overheating while on the road, as a quick way to buy you a little more time to find a place to stop.

Never thought about doing it during autox though... Maybe that's why my times were 2+ seconds behind yours...

 
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Hehe, yea I did that all the time on my old 87 civic hatch...in traffic