There was a recent “spy shot” of the new Ford Ranger truck seen driving around. The good news it is a Ford Ranger in name alone. The new Ranger chassis will be based on the Mazda BT-50 truck which is sold everywhere on the planet except North America.
Photo Courtesy of Mazda Australia
They are listing the new Mazda Ranger to be available in 2011 with a 1.6 DI gas engine. If Ford has some sense and sells the 3.0 16 valve 4 cylinder Turbodiesel with the 150 hp and 280 torque which is found overseas currently, they already have 1 buyer. With the Mazda chassis we will get double wishbone front suspension with torsion bars instead of the twin I-beam carry over from the 1960s. Ford had been using this suspension in light duty trucks in the last 30 years of Rangers.
If the engine and power train controls carry over from the BT-50 diesels there are plug in tuners available as well. Plug it in, turn up the boost and pick up an extra 50 torque!
You can tell I really want a new Mazda truck can’t you?
Who knows, CorkSport may even offer performance parts for the trucks.
Just got got the 2010 Mazdaspeed3 off the dyno after doing some installs and have some results to share.
The Dyno run went great for the 2010 MS3. It’s bone stock with three mods – CorkSport Power Series Racepipe (80mm with factory 65mm outlet) and CS Power Series Intake w/ Turbo Inlet and a set of CorkSport Motor Mount Inserts. Each of these products will be released shortly for the 2010 MS3 including some revised design considerations for the new 2010.
The stock baseline numbers for the 2010 were 231hp 269tq (73.8F/45%Humidity). With the two mods, it hammered down 272hp and 301tq (78.7F/43%Humidity).
41hp gain, 32ft lb of torque. Boost went from factory 16.4psi to 18.6. $388! Can’t wait to see what it picks up with the downpipe.
If you have a Speed3 without any exhaust modifications or haven’t added an intake or a turbo inlet pipe, hit me up…there’s power on the table right in front of you.
CorkSport is proud to announce that we are expanding our Cold Air Induction Box product line to include an Air Box for the COBB SF Intake system as well as our current development of cold air boxes for the 2010 Mazdaspeed3 and 2010 Mazda3.
In our testing of this product we wanted to define:
Where the cold and hot air fronts exist in the engine compartment and what differential can be expected between these areas.
Where high and low pressure areas exist which direct requirements for sealing off areas to ensure the coldest air temperatures into the filter.
To achieve these results, we determined that extensive pressure drop testing under dynamic conditions was not possible while delivering a box that retails under $100. A well planned design of experiment which measured temperatures in the engine compartment, airbox and surrounding areas would give us not only the hard numbers we needed to show results, but also some intuition as to where the various pressure zones exist and how that effects movement of hot and cold air in the vicinity of the filter. What we found is that the various pressure zones in the engine compartment can create barriers preventing the intake from drawing hot air.
Our testing utilized a MSD DashHawk OBD2 Datalogging system and an Innovate TC-4 Four Channel Thermocouple Logger to measure Inlet Air Temperatures, Boost Air Temperatures, Ambient Air Temperature and two channels of thermocouple inside the box and directly outside the box in the hot engine compartment. The ambient air temperature on this day was about 64F. Earlier in the day we tested the short ram intake without our box and found intake air temps were 2-8 degrees lower than the engine compartment temperature.
Testing these variables on our cold air box design we saw a huge benefit – over 30 degree difference between the engine compartment and the interior of the box. By time of this testing, the engine compartment had a chance to heat soak and the hot air in the engine compartment 10-15 degrees higher. Despite this increase in temperature, our average temperature differential was now in the 25-28 degree range and inlet air temperatures were down 8-12 degrees dependent on volume of airflow past the sensor – obviously in traffic you’re going to get some level of heatsoak in the inlet system, MAF Housing, etc. – but that cools off quickly when 64 degree ambient air temperatures blast past at the rate of an office cubicle of volume per minute.
Some may ask, why is your box not enclosed or better sealed within the engine compartment? In the course of our testing seal off surfaces, we found areas – such as the gap under the box – are either a source of cool air or have a pressure effect that prevents hot air from entering into them. Some of these, such as the seams on the box, were beneficial to seal off, some provide relatively cool air, but others were completely inconclusive. Bottom line, there are a number of areas which may appear to allow hot air into the box, but testing proved otherwise.
The end result is a series of boxes which use a overhanging lid with seal strip along the mating surface, silicone seal at the filter port and contoured front edges which align with the headlight assembly. These systems promote filter temperatures roughly equivalent to ambient air temperature and 8-12 degree inlet air temperatures drops compared to similar intake systems without the box. Note: As we did not test at all possible outside air temperatures, extremely hot or extremely cold ambient temperatures may show some variation from these results, but the effects should be minimal.
If you have any questions or suggestions of further tests or concerns you may have with the CorkSport Power Series Intake System or CorkSport Cold Air Induction Systems, feel free to post comments to this blog so we may update the details and content.
I had the opportunity to head out to the MazdasNW.com Wednesday Night meet at Jasmine Grill in Federal Way, WA last Wednesday and I really had a great time. Roughly 70 enthusiasts turned out with 48 Mazdas and a handful of other cars.
Organized by MazdasNW.com, a forum for Northwest Mazda Owners and Enthusiasts, the weeknight meets appear to be just the tip of the iceberg as meets go for this group of enthusiasts of a really wide demographic.
It was great to be out among Mazda enthusiasts and like minded gearheads. The best part was seeing a lot of the custom work people had put into their cars – from custom fabricated dash pods to harness bars. Bringing along the CorkSport 2010 Mazdaspeed3 had some surprising results – mixed opinions abound whenever discussing the 2010 – but one thing was certain, the new Mazdaspeed3 gets attention wherever it goes.
Here are a few photos from the meet. If you’re in the Pacific Northwest, take a look at MazdasNW.com and head out to one of the next meets. The meets are on the second Wednesday of every month, even numbered months at the Southcenter Mall in Tukwilla and odd numbered months at the Northgate Mall in North Seattle. Hope to see you in North Seattle on the 9th of September – go to www.MazdasNW.com for more info.
I was mentioning my impending transmission swap after I had destroyed the B6T AWD transmission, there where a few more bugs with the transmission swap and I worked them out over the next couple of weeks. The first time I took the 323 around a corner at high speed the car tried to trade ends. A quick counter steer and full throttle put the car into a very manageable slide. This is the way the car should have been delivered I remember thinking as I straightened the car out before the next corner. The 90-94 AWD transmission was setup to put more of the percentage of power to the rear wheels vs. the fronts.
I picked up some second hand Silverstone rally tires from the Tabor Rally Team to mount on an extra set of rims and try my luck at rally cross. The one thing you don’t expect to hear on an AWD car is “I didn’t have enough grip”. The combination of a small turbo which made instant boost which translates into instant torque and a 2600lb car made for lots of wheel spin even with rally tires.
As you can see in the picture above, the results were great! I think I exported about 60 lbs of dirt from the Hillsboro fairgrounds back home to Vancouver, WA after that event. It took forever to get the dirt and grass off the bottom of the car. I didn’t exactly set any record times driving that way but after a season of racing it was good enough for 3rd place in open class with the Oregon Rally Group.
There was another rally cross event which sticks with me due to the strange nature of the event. I showed up to the event with some shaved Toyo T1S tires on the 323. I didn’t have a chance to mount the rally wheels for the event. It was a good thing to, as the water truck was a no show. That meant no water to keep the dust down and make the course a muddy mess. My run group was in the afternoon so I got to watch the cars run in the first half of the day. After a while you could see black on the dirt from tires leaving rubber on the course. This was advantage for me with my Toyo tires. My first run out was one of the fastest on the dry grass/hard pack dirt and I placed fairly high overall for the day.
Special Thanks to Wayne Flynn at pdxsports.com for the great picture above
Around that time I was thinking, you know I could always use more power. So trying out different combos of parts like ECUs and air flow meters I finally settled on running an odd mix of parts. To get rid of the factory airflow meter I went with an HKS F-CON Pro unit that was not made for the 323GTX. This setup uses a pressure sensor connected directly to the intake manifold. It allows the removal the clunky air flow meter and allows you to run vent to atmosphere bypass valves. It also allows you to use a standard BP turbo ECU to run the other basic functions for the engine. A set of 550cc injectors are used with the system for when I decide to get something different for a turbocharger or I decide to go crazy with the power.
I was happy with the 323 until I ran across a set of Advan RC rally rims for sale in Japan. After several months waiting of them at arrive from Japan they showed up at my door. The bolt pattern was supposed to be 5×114.3 which was great. A set of Familia GTR 5 bolt hubs and brakes would do the trick for installation. It turns out the wheels I had received were 5×100 Subaru wheels. In the end this may have been for the better, Familia GTR 5 bolt knuckles and brakes are heavy. After weighing the units they are almost double the weight of the 4 bolt AWD knuckles. For a car that will see rally cross more often than high speed track events light weight rotating assemblies really make a difference. So what am I doing with a fancy set of seemingly useless Advan wheels now? I don’t let too many things get in my way that I want in regards to the 323. I have chased down a set of second hand hubs and I am going to drill them to 5×100 along with a set of rotors. I get to have my wheels and keep the lighter brakes.
This sums up my odyssey with my 323GTX. One thing that has remained constant through all of this is the BF chassis 323 shell. My car is now mid-way through the 200,000 mile mark. It has been in a few accidents, parked in a ditch by someone who didn’t know how to drive an AWD car, rally crossed, taken out on track days, drifted into curbs, and loved like a 323GTX should be.
-Derrick
Derrick’s Mazda Odyssey – How it All Began – Part 2 July 15th, 2020CorkSport
