CorkSport Featured Car of the Month – October – Joe Perry

October Featured Car of the Month

Joe Perry and his 2011 Black Mica MazdaSpeed3

Joe found himself at a dealership, looking for a Mustang. As fate would have it though, he got the chance to check out a Mazdaspeed 3 instead and something just clicked. After the test drive, and finding out that the deal was just too good to pass up, he sealed the deal. Having owned a Miata previously, he knew Mazda could build an exciting car, even if it the Speed was a little different. Mostly, Joe just enjoyed the fact that his head didn’t stick above the roof!

With the purchase of his 2011 Black Speed 3 he decided to give modifying a try. Looking for a crisp feel and wanting to remove the excessive engine movement he was experiencing, especially when launching, he purchased the CorkSport Rear Motor Mount Insert. Once installed, the mod bug hit hard. Just check out this list:

Performance mods

-ETS tmic
-Autotech HPFP internals
-SURE intake
-SURE turbo inlet
-Forge V1 bpv
-Ultimate Racing downpipe
–Corksport Racepipe
-Ultimate Racing cat-back exhaust
-Corksport Exhaust Hangars
-Corksport Short Shift Plate
-Corksport Race Rear Motor Mount
-Corksport Oil Catch Can
-Denso ITV22 spark plugs
Wheels & suspension
-10mm spacers
-Continental sport contact DW tires
-Eibach Pro-kit springs
-Koni yellow shocks
-Akebono Euro brake pads
Exterior goodies
-OEM mazda window visors
-20% tint
-Rally Armor mud flaps

Joe’s most frequent passenger is his girlfriend Elizabeth, who may be a little jealous of the attention his Speed 3 gets, but is always up for the “zoom zoom-boost,” as she calls it. “She loves the car, and there are times you’ll hear her say, ‘Just go fast’”.

Joe hasn’t found himself at many Mazda Meets or events, but he’ll regularly troll through the classic car shows and let the guys gawk at his ‘OCD Clean’ ride. “The old guys love it, a big contrast from theirs, but car people appreciate clean, powerful cars”.

You can find Joe and his beauty “cruising the winding back roads of the reservoir; a local spot through the woods with some good twists and turns”, or to and from work as a correctional officer. “Inmates look out the window and take notice of any and all changes I make to the ride, or just listen to the sound of it…” he says with a chuckle.

He loves his Pro Tune from Lex @ Stratified, and looks forward to some Work-Emotion Wheels and a possible upgraded turbo next summer.

This is Joe’s first ‘award’ of any kind, “I love the car and keep it crazy clean, but haven’t really shared it much”. So ladies and gents he’s batting 1.000!

I’m going to end this with my own thoughts here and say:
“Just look at that GRIN!”
Cheers – Kim

October 23, 2013January 4, 2020

The Fuel Pump Finale… (Sort Of)

How To Create The Best Pump on the Market

With our fuel pump design complete (link to fuel pump blogs 1,2,3,4), we now turned our attention to the details. We wanted a coating to protect the piston and decrease friction during operation. After testing dozens of compounds, we settled on a very strong coating that is applied with a proprietary process. This process allows for an exceptional bond with the metal, lower static friction, and increases the surface hardness. Before applying the coating however, we wanted to make sure we had the best part possible underneath it. Imagine having an orange that is covered in titanium. The surface might be incredibly hard, but with no substance to back that up you will eventually lose the shape.

After choosing a very strong alloy for our internals, we then machine their tolerances to an incredible 6 microns! To make sure the tolerances are paired for life, we serialize the parts to prevent any issues and to track the life of the pumps. We then surface treat the pumps to achieve the alloys maximum strength; only after the maximum hardness is achieved do we apply our surface treatments to bring the overall durability to an even higher level.

Many companies would be finished at this point but, at CorkSport, our research has shown us that when a coating is applied it is very difficult to maintain a smooth surface. In fact, we found that the coating has many microscopic hills and valleys. There would be no reason for us to go through all the work of having incredible tolerances if we were just going to ruin them with an uneven coating. In order to correct this, the pistons are then re-machined back to their original single micron tolerance. The CorkSport Fuel Pump Internals are the lightest aftermarket kit on the market for faster response and decreased cam wear. At this point it may seem like we are flying this pump to Mars but we just wanted to make the best part on the market, and it worked.

Pump More Than Any Other Kit Available

All of this adds up to an improved pumping volume that is over 8% higher than all other pumps we tested and 50% larger capacity than the stock pump. When other pumps are losing efficiency because of their design or tolerances, ours is just hitting its stride. That difference in the real world is going to be higher HP numbers, safer air/fuel ratios and the ability to go that much further without worrying about your fuel supply.

Because of the increase in fuel we highly recommend that you get a new tune for your car we have made a combo deal to save some money here.

How to Buy the Best Fuel Pump Internals

Now that the cat is out of the bag we can let you know a few more things.

Our first batch is very limited and we want to give everyone that has been waiting a fair shot at getting one. We will release these parts for Pre-Order on November 1^st. The Pre-Order will be limited to the first 100 paid orders or November 14^th, whichever comes first.

The CorkSport High Pressure Fuel Pump internals include a collectable aluminum box with:

Full color instructions
Stainless Steel Installation Tool (That also doubles as a keychain bottle opener!)
Anodized Aluminum Installation Sleeve
CorkSport USB drive with Installation Video, Promotional Video and Other Bonus Material
CorkSport Precision Fuel Pump Internals (including higher rate spring)
Retaining Hardware

The Pre-Order will go live on November 1^st at 12am Pacific Standard Time and will remain up until the initial 100 orders have been placed. Unfortunately these are the only internals we will offer for 2013 so if you miss the pre-order you will have to wait until next year to get the best fuel pump upgrade on the market.

October 17, 2013January 4, 2020

The 33% Faster, 50% Smaller, 100% More Innovative CorkSport Bypass Valve

The CorkSport Mazdaspeed MZR Bypass Valve (Patent Pending)

With the new Patent Pending CorkSport Mazdaspeed MZR Bypass Valve you can have all the goodies of an aftermarket Bypass Valve, in a smaller size. By using a unique patent pending wave spring design, CorkSport was able to shrink the body of our bypass valve to almost half the size of stock. Along with this, the wave spring was tested to respond 33% faster than a stock valve. Since the blow off valve is a safety feature to protect the turbo from premature wear, this increase in acceleration can help increase the longevity of the turbo and the system as a whole. For more about all the innovations in the CorkSport bypass valve, click here.

So why do you need to upgrade? Well, the stock Bypass Valve is pretty good, but it falls short in two areas. When it comes to holding boost the stock Bypass Valve often will start leaking at anywhere upwards of 17psi. If you plan on having your boost much higher than stock you could have issues with leaks. Of course, you also upgrade a bypass valve to get that unique sound.

While the unique patent pending CorkSport Mazdaspeed MZR Bypass Valve will provide both a unique sound and hold more boost, our BPV will also provide some other key benefits that, until now, have been pretty much ignored by others.

The CorkSport MZR Bypass valve utilizes a compact wave style spring which allows the stock valve size to be decreased by half. This patent pending design allows room for other engine upgrades such as Big Intakes, Airboxes, Front Mount Intercooler setups and more. Using a wave style spring that is 20mm in height compared to the stock 40mm not only enabled us to shrink the overall size of the valve, but also shrinks response time to lightning quick speeds. Though both the stock spring and our wave spring provide the same force and move the same distance before coil-bind, a smaller wave style spring can respond up to 33% faster.

A smaller spring allowed us to decrease the overall size of the piston while still pushing the piston area out to ensure a larger venting area. This reduces the time it takes to vent air and allows any turbo, especially larger turbos, to vent more efficiently.

No matter which benefit is more important to you, whether you value long turbo life, unique sound, more engine space, or holding higher boost, the CorkSport Mazdaspeed MZR Bypass Valve should be your first choice.

To Learn More or Purchase the CorkSport Mazdaspeed MZR Bypass Valve here: https://www.corksport.com/corksport-mazdaspeed-mzr-bypass-valve.html

October 15, 2013February 28, 2018

Fuel Pump Comparison Part 4 (Bombs Away!)

We know by now that adding power to your Mazda is fairly straightforward up to a certain point. However, sooner or later, that hunger for power means you’re going to need to step up to a new fuel pump that can flow more fuel. By seeing that most of the fuel pumps on the market were largely the same, we decided to see what kind of innovations we could bring to the table. At this point we had learned volumes about the pumps on the market through our research and decided to engineer a new set of pump internals that focused on everything that we had learned.

We know this is possibly the worst kept secret since Area 51, but we started engineering fuel pump internals over 2 years ago and we aim to show you why ours is worth the wait.

We didn’t just set out to make another pump; the market has plenty of those. We set out to make the best Mazda fuel pump upgrade on the market specifically for Mazdas from a company that ONLY makes parts for Mazdas.

We started by researching many different technologies and engineering ideas in the pressure ranges experienced in these fuel pumps. We purchased every kit on the market and a brand new replacement from Mazda to test. The results from some of those tests can be found here (Link to blogs 1,2, and 3). After agreeing that 9.8mm was the maximum size we could attempt for the piston without making the sleeve wall too thin, we could start engineering the rest of the part.

We then built all the internals available in SolidWorks and tested the efficiency of them all for flow design and volume. This was merely the beginning of our design phase but helped us realize many great ideas (as well as a few not so great ones). We ended up with a design unlike any other on the market that, according to the data, would be more efficient than anything on the market.

With the increase in flow and efficiency we knew that our design could also benefit from a stiffer spring rate for the pump. That would enable higher RPM’s and improved cam wear over the life of the pump. Since we would be flowing more, the pressure on the pump would be greater than ever, the stiffer spring was just good insurance to get the power we needed even past the stock redline.

During our testing we also discovered the keeper assembly used by the factory is no accident. Many of the other pumps on the market use a keeper system similar to an intake or exhaust valve. This style does a fantastic job of locking the piston in place, but creates a few issues of its own. Because of the flow of fuel, the piston rides one side of the sleeve more than the other; over time, this will wear more into the piston which will affect clearances and efficiency. To prevent this, the factory style keeper allows the piston to spin as the spring moves up and down. That led us to choose the factory style retainer. We didn’t want to guess on either design without proof of our theory so we produced samples of both styles to prove wear differences and address installation challenges related to both styles.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, we’ll have just one more fuel pump blog next week with a very exciting limited offer. Stay tuned as CorkSport is about to take Mazda performance one step higher!

October 10, 2013December 18, 2017

CorkSport Races at Road America

Rain America

My first experience at an SCCA national championship run off was exciting and left me impatient for the next season to start. I arrived on Sunday night and unloaded the car from the transporter that Joey Jordan Motorsports graciously allowed us to use.

All of the Mazda 2s were able to pit together under the covered paddock (thanks to Mazdaspeed). We were positioned at corner 14 so we were treated to a great view of the track while we chatted each day.

On Monday I was way off the pace of the other B-Spec cars in practice. The best time I was able to get was a 3:00 flat and the fastest other B-Spec was running in the 2:55-2:57 range. This was my first time out on the track so I knew there would be some learning to do as a simulator can only do so much.

On Tuesday, during the first qualifying session a Mazda 2 was clipped in Canada Corner (turn 14) and flipped. It spun across the track and flipped back over in the gravel. The driver was ok and he hopped out saying something funny about his stunt driving. The car lost its windows and was cosmetically damaged but all of the safety equipment was still in great shape.

It took them only 3 days to get the car back together to pass tech before the race on Sunday, quite an amazing feat.

We continued to make changes on the CorkSport Mazda 2 through the week but there were quite a few black flagged sessions due to people crashing out on cold tires. I saw several cars destroyed by hitting the walls in corner 7 and the kink on the back straight.

On Saturday we decided to make some large scale changes to the car and see how they would help my warm-up STL race on Sunday. My goal was to get into the 2:58s for lap times so I would stand a chance of keeping up with the rest of the cars fighting it out for the lead. The changes worked like magic and I was able to get into the 2:57s. With a good lap time set we left the setup where it was and bolted a new set of tires on the car for the race.

I qualified in 8th place due to being off the pace on Tuesday and not getting a clean run on Wednesday and Thursday. The race was very intense, especially with the first lap cars going off the track. Joel Weinberg who was the pole sitter had his steering wheel come off in his hand and he hit the wall taking him out of the race in the first corner. I was able to pass one of the Honda Fits who missed the corner at turn 5, locked up his brakes and allowed me to move into 6th. There was also a wreck coming out of turn 7 where a few cars made contact and a Fiesta was destroyed when it hit the wall which moved me up to 5th. After a few laps the Mazda 2, which was involved in the wreck earlier, was able to get around me (he also set a new track record playing catch up with a 2:54). We did some bump drafting to try to get past the 4th place Mini but there was some questionable blocking of the 5th place Mazda 2 (including some contact). I made two errors in corner 6 which dropped me back too far to catch up. At the end of 13 laps I was in 6th overall. This meant I was sent to impound with the rest of the front runners to pass tech.

After 4 hours, a few protests, and the tech inspectors not being able to find information on the camshafts in the Minis they cut us loose to load up the cars and hit the road. After quite a few days, the results were final and I was awarded 6th place overall. In the race I was able to get a low lap time of 2:56 which was great to see from the car and myself. I believe I can do better if given more track time.
Want to watch the race? Click on this link and skip to 5:15 for the start of the T-4/B-Spec race.

Overall it was a crazy week of learning at the track. The result is not what I wanted, but to make it through the race with no damage made me happy, and there is always next year which is closer to home at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

-Derrick

CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

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