Author: Derrick Ambrose

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Injured 2 Gets Some Early Christmas Presents

After a semi trailer’s re-tread tire shattered our Mazda 2’s windshield and ruined the hood (I’ll leave that for Derrick to write about since he was driving), it was time for some much needed TLC. To start with, we fitted the 2 with a new CorkSport Stainless Steel exhaust (still in the testing phase). It includes a cat-delete pipe, full mandrel bent piping, and a 90mm rolled dual wall tip. The exhaust gives a nice, but not overbearing tone that even your significant other will not complain about.

The next Christmas present the 2 received is a new front strut tower bar. There was not much clearance for this bar to fit, but we managed to make it work. The bar utilizes laser cut mounting plates and even allows you to keep the brake reservoir in its stock location. As shown in the picture, the bar is black powder coated and installs in just minutes.

The last item that hasn’t made its way on to the 2 yet is a quick-release rear hatch brace similar the the Mazda 3 version that we currently sell. The prototype bar utilizes cnc milled mounts that will be totally hidden behind the hatch molding except for the actual mounting holes.

My initial impressions of the 2 were that it was simply a commuter sub-compact. Now that I have spent several days working on and driving this car, I have come to like it’s fuel efficient and nimble stature.

Have a new product idea or question? Feel free to email me.

– Jake

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Traveling the Northwest, For Show

Today we’ve got a guest blog from good friend of CorkSport and owner of a gorgeous (CorkSport sponsored) MazdaSpeed 3, CJ!

Before the show season started, I was doubtful that there would be shows left that would keep the import car show scene in the Northwest alive. Two major show events canceled out due to economic reasons and show websites were not being updated. Fortunately for people like me, the scene did not die and the Northwest managed to put together a list of fun car events.

Import Face Off was the first show of the season and featured both a car show and drag racing. I learned a few things that day like what car owners do before the show begins (clean, shine and clean their cars some more). What they do during the show to pass the time better (bring chairs, camera, snacks, water,
canopy, and sunblock <– very important).

The next show was the Fatlace One of One Showcase at Formula D in Monroe, WA at Evergreen Speedway. This was the first big event of the year with tons of booth vendors giving away a lot of free swag, an open to the public pit area, and tons of drift action from both amateurs and pros.

On July 18, NOS Forum Fest was held at PGP Motorsports Park in Kent, WA. This was a popular event that gathered a large number of enthusiasts through the power of the internet and forums. It featured both drag racing and drifting so there was plenty of stuff to keep you entertained. With the help of Derrick and
Chris from CorkSport making the trek north and bringing 2 cars, MazdasNW managed to win the Best Forum Representation award. My 2008 Mazdaspeed 3 managed to win Best Mazda, which was my first award ever.

The farthest event I went to this year is the Excelerator Car Meet at Silverwood Theme Park in Athol, Idaho. Registered attendees were treated with admission for 2 into both the theme park and water park, which made for one of the funnest events I’ve attended.

On August 29, I decided to go north of the border into Richmond, B.C. Canada to check out the import scene there at Revscene.net’s Sausage Fest Summer Car Meet. This was the biggest event I went to this year – it had the most Hondas, the most Evos, the most Mazda 3s, and the most BMWs out of any other show or meet.

Battle of the Imports in Woodburn, Oregon was originally scheduled for September 19th but was postponed to October 2nd due to unpredictable weather conditions in the Northwest , which had clear sunny skies in the afternoon. Just like Import Face Off, this event featured a show and drag racing. 2 CorkSport Sponsored vehicles won awards that day. Best of Class Mazda for the skull themed RX8 and 2nd place Best Mazda for my MS3.

– CJ

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CARB CERTIFIED. YEAH, THAT’S RIGHT. I SAID IT.

I have been one of the Product Development Engineers here at CorkSport for roughly nine months. During that time, I have helped complete projects that were already in the works before I was here, completed projects on my own, and have started projects that are still in the development process. One project that I have been working on (other than physical part development) since I started here has been getting some of our parts California Air Resource Board (CARB) approved. After nine long months, I can now check that off my to-do list (at least for a few of our parts).

Our 2010-up Mazdaspeed 3 Short Ram Intake (SRI), 2007-2009 Mazdaspeed 3 SRI, 2006-2007 Mazdaspeed 6 SRI, and our 2007-up CX-7 SRI will now be CARB certified. This is the full intake kit that consists of the filter, MAF housing, silicone couplers, and turbo inlet pipe (TIP) as shown in the picture below. In the next few weeks we will be receiving a legal Executive Order (EO) number assigned to these intake packages. That EO number will be affixed to the intake system which will designate it as CARB approved (50-state legal).

If you already have our intake system for one of these vehicles, DO NOT WORRY! No, we can’t legally send you a sticker to put on your intake, but when you go in to the smog check station, they will look up our intake and verify that you have the same intake system on your vehicle.

The process of getting a performance part CARB certified is lengthy and time consuming, but we feel that making parts that are legal in all 50 states is very important.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

– Jake

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Getting What You Want – When there is a Problem

Our friend Kelly is back this week with a little Thanksgiving cheer:

Given the time of year and the frustration many of us have experienced when calling a company for help I thought I would offer up some tips to help you navigate your way through any phone call to any company for any customer service issue.

My background: I’ve spent years of my life in retail for such companies as Eddie Bauer, the Limited Corporation, several upscale small boutiques in various ski resorts, years of call center hell for The Nautilus Group, Client Service for Dunn and Bradstreet, and for the past 5 years CorkSport.

First: Catch your breath and determine what you want to get out of the call before you dial. We would all like everything for free and magically fixed yesterday, but most likely the person you get on the other end of the phone does not have the power to make it so. If you keep your request reasonable you are more likely to be successful and limit your time on the phone.

Golden Rule! I can’t tell you how important this is. If you treat people kindly and respectfully you are far more likely to get what you expected or even more. Trust me, many people don’t remember to be kind and the JERKS of the world may get satisfaction, but they also generally end up as the water cooler gossip, their files get flagged and generally will be treated poorly every time they call. They are also forced to make multiple phone calls, and will get hung-up at least once by someone who has had enough crap from people who are rude and disrespectful. Be polite! Your Mama was right. Manners will take you far, plus its just common courtesy.

Smile and remain calm, if you’re calm and realistic the process will go much easier for both parties. Once again if you’re nasty, you will get treated accordingly.

Use the person’s name. People like to hear their name. It’s one of those things that signify that the other person is listening and willing to have open communication.

Never make the person on the other end of the phone feel like they are personally responsible for screwing you over and wrecking your day. The representative answering the phone most likely had little to do with your purchase. Also, with big multi-national corporations you may encounter a call center representative who’s from another country, so they won’t have a clue about your local Best Buy or who that a-hole sales guy you dealt with is. They are their to help clean-up the mess and try to turn around your experience.

So remember this holiday season and beyond, be nice and good things will come your way.

I’ll try hard to follow my own advice and feel free to contact me if we’ve failed to meet your expectations.

– Kelly

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A Transparent Pipeline? Brilliant!

Here at CorkSport, we recently held a focus group to help understand what we can do better as a company. One of the things that were shown to be important to you, the customer, is to be more transparent in regards to what products we are currently working on and what you can expect to see released for sale in the near future. This post will be about some of the new products we have coming down the line, but our knowledgebase is your one-stop place for FAQs, testimonials, install instructions, and new product development.

In trying to expand our product line, we are looking into branching out into some new types of products that we don’t currently offer such as the mudflaps in the picture below. We are going to be coming out with a set of mudflaps with our logo embossed, laser etched or screen printed onto the back of them. They will be made of high quality polyurethane and will hopefully be available for several Mazda models. They will utilize stock mounting locations and come with everything needed for installation.

We will be releasing our CorkSport Short Ram Intake kit for the Mazda 2 in the next week or two. This will utilize a redesigned MAF housing specifically designed for the 2 and shows gains of 5-6 ft-lbs of torque and 3-4.5 hp.

Next on the list is a license plate relocation bracket that will fill out just about all of the newer Mazda vehicles that we currently don’t offer a plate relocation kit for. The picture below shows that kit on our Mazda 2. The kit includes a smoked Lexan plate with our new logo milled in. It also includes locking screws to help reduce the risk of someone stealing your license plate.

Finally, our amazingly popular Aluminum Skidplate for the 2010+ Mazda/Mazdaspeed 3 will soon be available for the 2004-2009 Mazda 3 and 2007-2009 MazdaSpeed 3. This upgrade from the factory undertray offers a removable oil filter cover that does not require you to take off the entire skidplate to change your oil. It also offers added protection and increased ground clearance compared to the factory undertray.

These are just a few of the products that we have coming down the pipeline in the near future. Be sure to keep checking our knowledgebase for updates and new product postings.

Jake