CorkSport | CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

July 29, 2015

5 Mazda Owners You Should Be Following on Instagram

Who doesn’t love an awesome shot of a Mazdaspeed, rolling through lush green highways? How about a whole stockpile of those shots, new angles and stances every week?

A lot of us drive beautiful Mazdas, but only a few of us have the photographic gift (or photographer friends) to showcase them as they deserve. For the rest of us, we can just enjoy the sights on Instagram, which has tons and tons of Mazda accounts we love.

We showcase owners and their pics every day with a #CorkSport Pic of the Day, so be sure to use that hashtag on your best shots. Sometimes, though, we need to point you toward a whole account, like these 5 Mazda owners you should be following on Instagram.

1. Gabriel Manzanera

He swaps out his wheels sometimes to keep things fresh. But really, Gabriel’s ride always looks fresh:

2. Marty Gro

Does it cleaner than this? Bonus: Marty takes some great pics of his dog too.

3. Nick Pereira

If you’re ever in the mood for just a glimpse of a Mazda, Nick finds the best angles of his Mazda 3, showcasing just how good every part of the car looks. (Don’t worry: He takes some killer full body pics too.)

4. Kyle Cross

You’ll see more than just Mazdas on Kyle’s professional photography account, but we don’t mind when every shot looks so damn great.

5. Charles Villeneuve

Hailing from Canada, Charles is serious about mods—and takes some seriously great shots of his 2010 Mazdaspeed 3.

Who else, guys? Give us a follow at @CorkSport and direct us to some other great Mazda owners on Instagram.

Cheers,

CorkSport

July 28, 2015July 31, 2015

NATOR OR BBQ and Dyno Day

As some of you may know already, CorkSport HQ made the move to a much larger and more functional building in January 2014. I think we can all agree that moving sucks and basically consumes your life for at least the month before and after the actual move. Well, I’m here to tell you it’s a hundred times worse when you are trying to move a business while still “keeping the doors open”. In the chaos of moving and getting the new location setup just right it’s easy to forget about the little yet important activities. So what better way to get back in the groove than a BBQ and Dyno Day to support the local community!

July 18th was the big day with 15 cars scheduled to get on the dyno, and another 35-45 cars planning to show up to watch the numbers! With everything set up and the burgers and dogs grilling away, people started to roll in by 12:30pm. The first car got on the dyno and the show began.

First, a bit about our dyno; it’s nicknamed “The Heartbreaker,” and oh so many hearts has it broken. The Tq/Hp curves look good, but it just reads low numbers. For example, a stock Mazdaspeed3 puts down a sad 190whp. Anyway, amongst the 15 Speed3s that planned to hit the dyno the mods varied from nearly stock to big turbo builds with lots of meth. There were quite a few Speeds in the 200-250whp range with a nice assortment of bolt-ons, a couple cars running a BNR or CS turbo in the 295-320whp range and then there is Justin England: a local out of Washington rocking a built block, GTX3071r at 34psi and tons of meth. He put down a very respectable 400wHp/365wTq on the heartbreaker dyno.

Just to give you another reference point, we threw a 07’ Corvette on the dyno that also has high flow cylinder heads, intake & exhaust manifold, performance camshaft, and full exhaust system. He put down a mere 420wHp/380wTq…yup. Anyways, enough about our depressing dyno!

Along with the constant roar of WOT pulls there was plenty of food and drinks and even a raffle thanks to a handful of sponsors: Tuned by Nishan, Justin at Freektune, Damond Motorsports, James Barone Racing, and CorkSport.

Check out the images below!

Yes, that’s a pink Miata with a V8 that’s a daily driver drift car…it’s basically badass.

All-in-all it was great day! We had a blast, put down some numbers, and stuffed our bellies. What more can you ask for?! Big thanks to all the NATOR OR members and CS employees that made this day possible and to the sponsors that donated items for the raffle! This is what makes the Mazda community so great!

Cheers,

Barett

July 24, 2015

The Best West Coast Road Trips for You and Your Mazdaspeed

Last month, when The Smoking Tire featured our turbocharger in a beta tester’s Mazdaspeed 6, we loved watching how the car handled switchbacks as much as we loved hearing the turbo purr every few seconds.

It got us thinking, What are the best West Coast road trips to take a Mazdaspeed?

That isn’t the most objective of questions, but all the same we wanted to share a list of some of the spots we found—as well as why we love them. Tell us what you think, and what we missed.

California’s Pacific Coast Highway

Did we have a choice to list anything else first? These 123 miles of highway may be the most iconic in the whole country, much less the West Coast. If you like curves and the thrill of driving right up against a cliff face, you can’t do much better than taking your Mazdaspeed here. It should take about 5 hours at a leisurely pace, but you can probably cut that down to 3.5, right?

The Oregon Painted Hills

Called one of the 7 Wonders of Oregon, the Painted Hills in Eastern Oregon make for a breathtaking destination. They also offer some great vistas and stops along the way. There are rivers, fossil fields, and plenty of little towns to stop and grab a bite, as well as Mount Hood National Forest if you’re coming from the West, which always makes for gorgeous driving.

The Olympic Peninsula of Washington

There’s still no road that traverses the interior of the Olympic mountains, but that’s okay: Just driving on the loop around them on highway 101 gives you a thousand beautiful views. Most people only ever see one angle of the Olympics, from Seattle, so take a road trip in your Mazdaspeed to gain an experience few people ever do.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska

No, we didn’t forget about our friends up north. This drive should be on every nature lover’s bucket list, though you may not be able to cross it off till you retire or earn a long sabbatical if you plan to take your own Mazdaspeed. The whole route, Anchorage to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, takes you along Alaska 1 (Glenn Highway), Alaska 10 (Edgerton Highway), and McCarthy Road, which of course doesn’t include the trek up through Canada. While we’d love to see some #CorkSport shots on this drive, be careful about driving your baby all the way. Once you get to Wrangell-St. Elias, you face a 59-mile gravel road to reach the heart of the park.

Have fun, wherever you choose to drive.

Cheers,

Corksport

July 10, 2015November 4, 2015

What New MX-5 Parts Do You Want to See?

With the new 2016 MX-5 due to arrive into our hands around the 21st of July, this brings up the question we’d like to ask our supporters: What new Miata parts would you like to see made?

It is a little early to ask this question, since we don’t have the 2016 MX-5 in our garage yet, but it does give our engineers a head start to think about what you value and want—beyond what we already have planned.

The short answer: Big things.

The long answer: The short list of products, below.

Intake/Airbox Kit Exhaust System
Lowering/Sport Springs
Upgraded Sway Bars
Short Shifter

Also, we’ve received a few ideas in the past, including a seat lowering kit. In other words, we’d move the seat even lower in the chassis for tall people/helmet clearance on the top. Also, a tuner.

Really, we’re open to anything, so exercise your mind and we’ll see what we can do!

Cheers,

Derrick

July 9, 2015September 13, 2018

How to Keep That New Mazda Sheen

One of the perks of our job is having the chance to see so many sleek Mazdas.

Every day we receive shots of customers’ cars, to say nothing about the 23k photos hashtagged #CorkSport on Instagram, or all the Mazdas the CorkSport team owns. Of course, the shots taken by professional photographers really catch our eye, especially if they’re of a new Mazda, or at least a Mazda that’s kept its new car shine.

Whether we drive on the track or highway, that’s always the goal, right? To maintain the same sheen our sedans and hatchbacks had when we drove them off the lot? It’s not a perfect art, detailing your Mazda, but if you want that new car shine, try some of these tips.

Wash it weekly

Oxidation is mostly responsible for that faded look older cars have. It usually doesn’t become visible in the first 12-18 months, but that’s when you need to begin washing regularly—ideally weekly—so it never does, or at least remains minimal. If you don’t have time every week, try quick detailing.

Remove contaminants

The longer you let dead bugs and bird sh*t sit on your Mazda, the harder they’ll be to remove. Every time you drive, you pick up debris, and tar, oil, and air pollutants will gradually lodge themselves in your paint. Especially when you notice these, but preferably every week, clean them off, either with a microfiber detailing cloth or shampooed mitt. A clay lubricant can also come in handy. Just be sure to clean these off even as your removing the gunk, and don’t rub too hard or you’ll leave scratch marks.

Polish and glaze the scratches

The first scratch or scuff always hurts, even if you know it’s unavoidable. When the small scuffs and swirl marks happen, use a polishing towel to smooth out the surface. Glazes are paint treatments that can also fill these in, which will restore the paint’s gloss. A polished Mazda is gonna look—and feel—great.

Use protection

New scratches and scuffs are harder to come by if you use a protective sealant once you finish polishing. A synthetic, acrylic resin and sealant glaze will keep your paint safer, so you won’t have to glaze and polish as often. Once this is done, add the shine with some good wax, which can bring out depth and more color from your paint.

We asked the CorkSport community what products you guys use, and we never heard anything bad about Collinite, Poorboy’s, or Chemical Guys. Are there any others we should try?

We care about our Mazda performance and what goes on under the hood, but how it looks over the hood has gotta be worth some gains too.

Cheers,

CorkSport