Category: Mazda2

AKA the Duece, the Mazda 2 is a great handling sub-compact car which CorkSport offers limited performance parts for including intake, springs and other suspension parts.

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What is Mazda Up to?

I looked up the vehicle market share to see how Mazda did in the US over the last year. I was surprised to find that Mazda only accounts for 2% of the market. I have known Mazda is a smaller player in the market but I didn’t realize it was that small. If you look at what Mazda brings to the table you realize they do very well with what they sell. Looking at the product lines, Mazda has a vehicle in most of the segments like compact, mid size, sports car, etc. which is an accomplishment for a smaller manufacturer.

Mazda has great enthusiast support for their vehicles as well. Mazda advertises that more of their models are out racing on any weekend than any other manufacturer, and Mazda is only a 2% percent market share. They also brought us the Miata, the best selling sports car of all time, with over 890,000 sold to date! It does make you wonder what those other manufacturers are doing with their time. This also means we at CorkSport, like you, chose Mazda over some other brand based on the cars being fun to drive.

A strong component of the fun to drive crowd is the demographic of a Mazda owner. The mean age of Mazda owners is 42 years old. Only Scion has a younger average owner age, and they are a brand marketed directly to younger buyers.

There has been some news circulating about Mazda not being able to build new platforms since Ford and Mazda are not longer going to share resources. I don’t think this will be a problem for Mazda. There has been some shared chassis between Mazda and Ford in the past but Mazda has often developed their own platforms to build cars on. They have the engineering capabilities to do so in the future as well.

Mazda has just recently raised a huge amount of capital to fund its engine research for their new SKY engine series, and other projects which are not going to be shared with Ford. Mazda announced they want to increase the fuel economy by 30% in the upcoming years. Expect to see more direct injected motors in the future from Mazda to meet that goal. I am really hoping we get the direct injected diesel engines in the upcoming Mazda 2. The engine gets incredible fuel economy and meets ULEV (Ultra Low) emissions requirements for Europe.


Mazda SKY Engine

Mazda is not the biggest manufacturer of cars and probably never will be, but we can count on them to keep producing great vehicles for us to drive. With the visible plans Mazda has set out I expect to see some great products in the future.

– Derrick

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Mazda 2 Redux

I keep going back to the past experiences of cars I have owned, and thinking of cars I would like to own. Speaking of a car I want to own, the Mazda 2 it has been officially released, down in California at the LA Auto Show. I am really pumped about this car. Sure, we are getting the Mazda 2 four years after the rest of the planet, but hey better late than never in my opinion.

We are getting the “face lifted” version of the car (shown above) here in North America. The top of the line model will probably come with a 1.5L or 1.6L engine; Mazda has not released that information yet. My guess is that we might get the new SKY engines Mazda has been working on.

The size of the Mazda 2 is pretty close to the old BF chassis 323s. The same thing goes for power output, fuel economy, and versatility which will make for a fun package to drive (and modify). I already have visions in my head of a fully built 1.6 engine with a complete pile of CorkSport parts on it. It will take a little bit of time to get everything developed, but I know I am patient enough. Heck I’ve already been waiting years for the Mazda 2, what’s another few months for some performance parts?

A funny design idea I had after seeing the green car was to get one and add Mt Dew decals, and get the sort of urban Mt Dew camouflage like the current can design (seen below). Mix it up with some graphic designs and come out with a truly unique car to hit the streets with.

At the LA auto show they also had a few show versions of the Mazda 2 including a sport version with an aggressively styled body kit and lowered (see below) labeled “2evil”. The whole package looks good for a sport model. Some journalists had tossed around the “Mazdaspeed 2” name for the model but I personally think this is just a concept show car.

One thing for sure is I plan on having some fun with the Mazda 2 once I get mine. What do you guys think? Anyone else as excited as I am?

– Derrick

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Derrick’s Mazda Odyssey – How it All Began – Part 1

So when did you know you first wanted a Mazda?  I had my high school years skewered a bit by friends and other influences down the trail of Mazda ownership.  The first Mazda I really wanted was a 323 GTX.  Getting a ride to school in rain, snow, or any weather made me realize how unique the car was.  It didn’t help that the dual rear hatch wings and the decals down the side listing off the traits of a performance car “Full Time 4wd 16 Valve DOHC Turbo”.  I do remember seeing the 88 anniversary edition RX7s in white thinking they were cool but it didn’t have the pull the 323 GTX did.

It took 6 years before I got a chance to purchase a 323 GTX.  I found one in the back of an auto week magazine located in New Mexico.  The car was a 1988 model with no rust and had 132,000 miles on it.  After several phone calls and a generous loan from a friend I flew to New Mexico with a cashiers check for $3750 in my hand. I met the owner the airport in Albuquerque after spending a day in airports with short trips in the air at 3pm.  I drove the car to a nearby restaurant and took a look over the car.  It was a relatively stock car with the rear muffler removed for a bit more power and noise.  The interior was in good shape with no damage.  So we made the deal and I headed on my way back home to Washington State.

This being my first turbo car I did do some reading up on it.  I knew to let the car idle after driving hard for a period of time and to not stand on the gas until the car warmed up.  I had heard term turbo lag but never experienced it before.  About 3 minutes into driving the car to the freeway in Albuquerque I pulled out in between some cars to get onto the freeway.  Standing on the throttle at 1300 rpm and the car didn’t move to fast.  This whole experience stuck with me because of the large truck I had pulled out in front of that had to slow down because some fruit loop in a Mazda pulled out in front of him.  Thankfully my first run in with turbo lag ended with the car or the driver being unhurt.

The drive back to Washington was un-eventful.  The car was solid as could be and I averaged 24 miles per gallon driving through the night in Arizona and So cal to my first stop to rest.  After a night sleep I drove home the rest of the way and arrived in time for work on Monday morning.

My co-workers were pretty amused at the purchase I made.  I heard “you flew to New Mexico to get that?”  Apparently they did not have a good appreciation for fine automobiles that I did (ha-ha).

Skip ahead 4 years and the car had needs some love.   New turbocharger was installed on the car along with a refreshed cylinder head.  That was too much for the poor bottom end of the motor.  At 187,000 miles the piston rings had enough and I looked like the car James Bond with the smokescreen going full blast behind the car.  So at a crossroads of sorts I found myself wondering where to go with the car.  I had read up and seen the 90-94 323 turbo models from Japan and other markets.  Spending some time looking around I located an engine supplier who had a BPT turbo engine in stock.  After a week I had an engine sitting at home.  It took a few weeks to get the installation sorted out with the changes between the engines but I was back on the road with the BPT running on the B6T hardware.

One thing that was nice was the BPT made a lot more torque than the B6T engine.  It only took a year until the transmission let me know it did not care for the extra torque.  I had to get across the street quickly between the flows of cars in downtown Portland.  Going across the rutted street cost me the transmission.  One of the tires left the ground for a second. When it came down BANG went the planetary assembly.  I limped the car home knowing there probably wasn’t much hope for the transmission at that point.  I decided then to use the transmission that arrived with the BPT engine.

The story does continue from here and you can read all about it in Part 2.

– Derrick

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Considering the Mazda 2

This is a message for Mazda North America; Why is the Mazda 2 not in North America?  Ford no longer has their hand in the cookie jar so what is the hold up?

I have various personal theories as to why; it will cut into Mazda 3 sales or perhaps production output for the 2 isn’t high enough. The economy is in the tank so we know Mazda isn’t at its max capacity. People are broke! We cannot afford the more expensive cars so a smaller car like the 2 makes sense. Its biggest competition would be the Fit, Yaris, and the soon to be offered Fiats. The Mazda 2 gets great gas mileage, and would argueably be car the best in class if Mazda sold the DI diesel model in the states.

Personally I want one because they are super light and prime for upgrading. I would try and fit a 2.3 DISI engine under the hood. Actually, I will fit a 2.3 DISI engine under the hood! A lightly modded 300hp DISI engine in a 2100lb car would produce an absolutely crazy-fun car to drive. Even in stock form the stock 1.6 liter is rated at 120 hp and torque.  If/when Mazda brings the car to the North America you can bet we will be getting more power out of that engine.

When I was in Tokyo last year I had the opportunity to ride in the AutoExe tuned Demio heading to a lunch meeting with them.  The car is just like a Mazda 3 in terms of fit and finish.  The interior was nice, not over the top.  Despite the 2 being small it was not uncomfortably small for 4 adult men.

There are rumors we may actually get the Mazda 2 late this year but nothing is available to the dealers yet.  Cross your fingers!

– Derrick