CorkSport began development of the new SkyActiv intake as soon as the technology was made available in the United States and today is happy to be the first Mazda aftermarket performance company to add a short ram intake for the 2012+ SkyActiv Mazda 3 and 2013+ Mazda CX-5 to its catalog of Mazda performance parts.
Engineered with exacting tolerances, the CorkSport Mazda SkyActiv Intake includes our precision machined MAF housing made from billet aluminum, durable dry flow air filter and custom reinforced silicone connector. In initial testing on the SkyActiv Mazda CX5, the CorkSport SkyActiv Short Ram Intake netted peak gains of +5 HP and +6 lb torque.
“Sales for Mazda’s new SkyActiv product line-up have shown tremendous potential and we have had several product requests for a SkyActiv short ram intake,“ said Rich Harris, President of CorkSport Mazda Performance, “Our engineering staff really stepped up to the plate to get our new SkyActiv intake to market quickly in order to fully support the Mazda community.”
CorkSport has already confirmed the fitment of the single exit Mazda 3 exhaust for the SkyActiv Mazda 3 and made it available to the public and is happy to be able to add a second performance offering designed for the SkyActiv technologies developed by Mazda to increase fuel efficiency and engine output.
As with all CorkSport Mazda SRIs, the SkyActiv Short Ram Intake comes with a two-year limited warranty, full-color installation instructions, and CorkSport service and support. For added support, this kit also has a complete installation video.
The CX-5 SkyActiv intake can be purchased separately in our newly added CorkSport CX5 catalog and the Mazda 3 SkyActiv Intake can be purchased as an option that has been added to the CorkSport Power Series 2.0 Liter Mazda 3 intake.
CorkSport is pleased to add the License Plate Relocation Kit to its growing line of styling products for the Mazdaspeed 6!
An easy upgrade to boost the look of your Mazdaspeed 6, the newly released license plate relocation kit will allow you to move your license plate to the OEM tow hook location on your vehicle allowing you to improve the overall look of the front bumper of your vehicle without requiring any permanent modifications.
The CorkSport Mazdaspeed 6 License Plate Relocation Kit is made from impact and temperature resistant ¼” lexan with a billet machined mounting base for added strength. The hardware is made from stainless steel and the base is anodized black for added protection against the elements.
“Our Mazdaspeed 3 License Plate Relocation Kit has been a huge success so it only made sense when we got a couple customer requests for this product, to develop it for the Mazdaspeed 6 as well,” said Rich Harris, President of CorkSport Mazda Performance, “I think our Mazdaspeed 6 customers will be impressed with the quality and fit of the CorkSport License Plate Relocation Kit on their vehicle.”
As with all CorkSport products, the Mazdaspeed 6 License Plate Relocation Kit comes with a two-year limited warranty, full color installation instructions and CorkSport service and support. For added support, this kit also has a complete installation video.
The new addition to the CorkSport Mazdaspeed 6 line is priced at $88.00, making this an easy and inexpensive way to boost the look of your Mazdaspeed 6. Installation for this parts takes only about a half hour and will significantly improve the look of your front bumper.
For more information about these products, please visit the CorkSport online catalog at www.corksport.com
As some of you have read of the last few years I really like the Mazda 2. Before it was released in the US I had written several blog posts on my thoughts. When we picked up the first Mazda 2 delivered in the US we set out to develop a range of parts for the 2. We have also had a chance to drive 2 in autocross events and down lots of winding roads.
Once you get to the point of completing the parts you need developed on a shop car what happens next? In the case of the CorkSport Mazda 2 you turn it into a B-Spec racecar. Why would you want to do that to a new car I am sure some of you are asking? If you have read the blog about my participation in the SCCA driving school you know that I am working towards my alter ego race car driving dream and the B-Spec racecar gives a good way to approach this being cost effective.
This leads us back to the CorkSport Mazda 2. To make it a B-Spec racer requires some work. Make that a lot of work. The first thing to building the car is to install a roll cage which is it probably one of the most time consuming parts of the job. First you start off with your stock interior and take it out.
Once you finish up that easy task you need to remove all of the sound deadener Mazda installed in the chassis. There are two methods to do this. #1 is with an air chisel and being very careful to not punch a hole through the floor of your car and #2 use dry ice. The dry ice method is something I had not done before but it sounded easy enough. That and if you have left over dry ice a plastic 2 liter bottles can be lots of fun. Check out the video below of me using the dry ice to remove the sound deadener.
If I can offer a tip while doing this is to get 2-3 blocks of the dry ice so you can have several sections cooling down and keep working so you do not have to stock between the freezing of the sound deadener.
Once you completely remove of the insulation you get to start on the roll cage. This takes time and precision to get done. If you have never done this work before, I strongly recommend taking it to a professional to get done. The materials, welds, and design all need to meet the specifications of the racing sanctioning body you will be participating with. In this case we used the specs from the SCCA GCR (General Competition Rules) which are accepted by other road racing sanctioning bodies.
We went with a nascar style door bars to give the driver more space in case there is a side impact and a bit of an angle for easier entry into the car while climbing over the cage.
After all of the hard work is done with the cage getting installed you need to paint it. We wanted the color to match the exterior so we ordered up several cans of the 38P paint code color from an online supplier and got to work. After taping up the interior to limit overspray we got to work with the color and the clear coat. The finished product looks good. The picture below shows the rear section painted with the base coat.
The final product looks great and matches well with the exterior paint of the 2.
Once the paint had dried we got to work installing the safety gear for the car. We went with a set of Sparco 6 point harnesses and a Sparco Circuit Seat.
Mounting the harnesses takes some planning. After getting a good idea of where we were going to mount the seat we got to work on the mounting points for the harness. In the Mazda 2 there is only 1 factory bolt location that we could use for the lap belt. The other side of the factory seat belt mounts to the original seat. The rules require you to have a 4 inch square backing plate for the harness on the back side of the car body to make sure the anchor points for the bolts do not tear through if you are involved in a wreck. We had to do this in three locations on the 2, one for the lap belt on the tunnel side and the two for the sub belt. After planning the hole locations and making sure there was no interference (make sure when you are drilling hole into your car you look at the other side of the panel) parts on the bottom of the 2 which there was since the brake lines and fuel lines pass under the drivers seat, we got to work with drilling the holes and mounting the eyelets. The actual installation of the harnesses is easy, they simple snap onto the mounting eyes and feeding the harness around the cage bar behind the seat.
The seat is a 1 piece FIA approved bucket which is a side mount style. With the Mazda 2 being out on the market for a short time we found there were no mounting brackets available which meant we got to build them ourselves. Thankfully this is a pretty straightforward task in the Mazda 2. After sourcing some inch and a quarter steel we pressed the shapes we needed and mounted up the seat. We set the seat up so there is a slight bend in the drivers legs when the pedals are pulley depressed. This allows you to have leverage and keep a comfortable seated position when driving. We also mounted the seat as low as we could and still give the driver good visibility of the track. A lower position means lower center of gravity in the car and the best handling of the car.
This is where we are at for the moment with the 2. I will be updating the build in the next few weeks to show the final result of the car.
Until now, the customer car of the month has been selected by CorkSport, but this month we wanted to try something a little different and get our customers involved in the selection process.
We have two randomly selected customers that have submitted their cars for consideration and we want to know which one you think should be featured as this month’s CorkSport customer car!
This month we have two solid contenders for the feature:
Derek Katayama’s 2004 Mazda 6
“I went for a full JDM look to the car; including the aero body kit from Kenstyle of Tokyo. Derrick helped me bring in ALL the parts I needed to convert the front and rear of the USDM Mazda 6 to accept the JDM body kit.”
Samuel Martinek’s 2010 Mazdaspeed 3
“So far I have spent about $4k on my speed three and there are still plans for more!”
To cast your vote on which customer car you want to hear more about, simply comment on this blog post, our Facebook thread, or our Twitter Feed. The one with the most votes will be featured later this month in our April newsletter and blog.
Interested in submitting your car for our feature? email a photo and current mods to gw****@*******rt.com
Gwynne-
Cast Your Votes for April’s Featured Car of the Month! September 13th, 2018Derrick Ambrose
We have blogged about what’s to come for the 2014 Mazda MX-5 in the past. At the time it was reported that the MX-5 Miata was going to be lighter than the current model by around 720 lbs and when I reported on this last August, the word was that the MX-5 would come with a 1.5-liter SkyActiv-G four-cylinder engine that would produce up to 160 horsepower and would be mated to a six-speed manual transmission with an option to change to a dual-clutch semi-automatic transmission.
It appears though that Mazda still has not settled on which engine will make its way into the next generation MX-5. Auto Guide reported last month that the engine originally planned for the MX-5 didn’t cut it and neither did a version of their current SkyActiv 2.0L four-cylinder engine. The 1.5 did not meet Mazda’s performance requirements and the 2.0L didn’t have the fuel economy.
So what now? Well it seems that the solution may come in the form of a 1.8L SkyActiv four-cylinder 1.3L or 1.5L turbo-charged engine. The new turbo engine will employ SkyActiv technologies like variable cam phasing with lower friction parts to boost performance and fuel economy and will also be mated to reduced-friction transmissions.
Whichever powerplant Mazda decides on, you can expect the car to produce roughly 150 hp with about a 10-percent improvement in fuel economy from the current MX-5’s (22 city/28 highway mpg). The new Miata is scheduled to make a debut by mid-2014 and will be priced under $25,000.
Gwynne-
2014 MX-5 Going SkyActiv Turbo September 13th, 2018Derrick Ambrose
