Over the last year there have been rumors of a racing series to run b segment cars on the track. Mazda and Honda decided to give it a shot, testing out cars at the 25 hours of thunder hill, which we blogged about last year with the Mazda 2 and the Fit.
On October 12th there were four cars which were tested by the SCCA at Michigan’s Grattan raceway to see how the cars stacked up against each other at racing speeds. The cars that showed up were the Mazda 2, Honda Fit, Ford Fiesta, and Fiat 500.
The SCCA tested out throttle restrictors and ballast weights to see how it affected each car. The restrictor and the ballast are used to equalize the playing field between the cars if one car has an advantage in weight or horse power.
The SCCA will be doing another round of testing at some point in January where they expect more manufacturers to show up. Kia has announced that they will have the Rio racing and has been rumors of Toyota and Nissan getting into the action next year as well.
The B-Spec class cars qualify for the SCCA showroom stock C category and there has been interest by both Grand-Am and World Challenge to pick up the series next year.
I am looking forward to seeing the cars our there on the track with some closer door to door racing next year.
Our customers are our lifeblood. We live by this understanding each and every day and appreciate that you put your trust in CorkSport products and choose CorkSport brand parts for your Mazda performance needs. Proof? Many of you may get a sense of this from the quality of our customer interactions. Hopefully, you find our staff easy to reach, courteous, helpful, and knowledgeable.
From our transparent shipping costs and our dedicated staff and customer service, to our rewards program for our loyal customers, and customer collaboration efforts, we want to demonstrate how grateful we are for your business each and every day.
I’d like to take this post as an opportunity to expand on the customer collaboration concept. We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth revisiting with a fresh example.
We’ve conducted numerous focus groups with our customers. In those groups we’ve discussed how our customers want to be involved in the product development process. Overwhelmingly we’ve been told you want to see the development process. You want to see what’s in the pipeline and have a chance to give feedback on the design. Our best most recent example of our efforts to expand our customer’s role in the product development process is our soon to be released camber plates for Mazdaspeed3.
Our knowledgebase is a repository for all sorts of information. For the camber plate development process, we’ve posted several articles in our knowledgebase. Brief summaries are presented below. The interested reader can view each article for more details.
Article 1:
The idea for camber plates came from two customers, Eric & Todd, who turned in product ideas. Our staff reviewed the merits of their suggestion and decided to pursue it.
Article 2:
Our initial design concept was posted for feedback.
Article 3:
Prototype parts were made from the drawings. Ordinarily we’d make one set for testing. This time, we made several extra sets so that if Todd and Eric wanted to get involved in Beta testing, we were positioned to take advantage of the opportunity. After installation and testing in house, Todd took us up on the offer to test a set of the camber plates.
Both Todd and Eric gave us great feedback and even hit the forums and started a discussion. We learned that many people were apprehensive to cut their strut tower to allow for camber adjustment. From our experience we are comfortable cutting sheet metal on a brand new car, understandably many people are not! We returned to the drawing board with the intention to eliminate that requirement. Success!
Article 4:
The biggest problem we had to resolve at this point was spring interference when using the Mazda Genuine struts. This limits negative camber to around -1.5 degrees. We solved this problem by revising our recently released lowering springs to have a tighter wound coils up front.
In summary, we made these changes to the original design as a result of our collaboration efforts with our customers:
• Recessed design to remove the requirement to enlarge the hole in the strut tower.
• Larger strut bolts to reduce camber variation from removal and reinstallation.
• Longer strut bolts to allow for strut brace installations.
• Custom lowering springs to allow for more than -1.5 degree which is limited by the factory chassis using struts.
We expect to release the camber plates and revised lowering springs in early 2012.
Thank you to everyone for their feedback. Special thanks to Todd and Eric for their participation in the development process.
Rich-
CorkSport Customer Collaboration – Camber Plate Development Process September 13th, 2018CorkSport
The time has come for what you say? The time has come to give our Mazda 2 Project Car a real stereo.
Instead of going with the usual tunes only deck, we decided to give the Mazda 2 a really big upgrade. We chose the Pioneer AVH P3300BT which includes DVD video, MP3 playback, iPod/iPhone direct control, and the option to listen to Pandora using the iPhone Pandora app. This top of the line system includes a 5.8” wide screen size with a 16:9 aspect ratio, touch panel operation, built in amplifier, rear view camera input and dual zone audio/video.
To install the system in our project car, we went with the Japanese made Kanatechs Mazda 2, 2 din installation kit. The Kanatechs kit uses an OEM quality, exclusive panel, designed to fit the Mazda2’s unique dash and includes pre-formed steel mounting brackets. The other kit on the market, the Metra, uses plastic brackets for a rather flimsy installation and gives car stereo thieves easy access.
The installation kit from Kanatechs is thorough and very easy to follow. After giving the instructions a once over I was ready to get to work. The interior in the Mazda 2 is surprisingly easy to take apart and came out with a Philips screw driver and an M10 headed bolt. The harnesses for the installation kit and the pioneer are all color coded so that was a snap to get connected as well. Overall I spent 2 hours installing the new deck.
The installed unit looks like it belongs in the Mazda 2. Too bad it wasn’t an option when the car was purchased.
There are a few notes from installing the unit which I would keep in mind for future installs.
1st – If your original set-up has steering wheel volume controls, get the steering wheel adapter unit from Kanatechs. It allows you to retain the volume controls on the steering wheel if your new audio unit supports IR control.
2nd – The information display selector will be disabled when the original stereo is removed. I recommend you choose your favorite setting and leave it there. With the stock unit unplugged you will have it set forever.
After a few days driving around in the Mazda 2 with the new unit, I am really enjoying the features. I can just plug in a SD card or a USB flash drive with whatever music I want and I am down the road.
-Derrick
The Time has Come – Project 2 Update September 13th, 2018CorkSport
Former Army Sergeant and 25 year old Iraq War Veteran, Will Buck caught our attention a little while ago when he sent along an impressive graph from a dyno of his 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 that logged 314hp and 349 torque with a stock turbo.
This Speed 3 is his first Mazda, but this Buffalo NY native has been modding cars since he started driving. Even his first Honda Civic ended up with a Zex Nitrous Kit on it.
After blowing up a couple motors on his supercharged Scion TC, Will finally decided it was time for something with a little better performance and reliability and his research led him right to the Mazdaspeed 3.
He recently won the highest horsepower stock turbo MS3 in Georgia award, but is ready to upgrade the turbo to a GTX3071 as his next project.
“I live just outside of Fort Benning, GA now and there is not much of a tuning following out here so I drive the two hours to Atlanta monthly to stay involved with fellow NATOR Georgia members,” said Will. “I spend my free time split between working on the car, home improvement, the Army Reserves and I spend a fair amount of time being active on mazdaspeedforums.org”
He is also passing along his love for speed to his two year old daughter who loves riding in the Mazdaspeed and is often egging her dad on by saying “go, go, go, go,go!” If Will’s dyno chart has anything to say about it, his speed 3 doesn’t disappoint when she asks him to floor it!
Gwynne –
Featured Car of the Month October 2011 – Will Buck September 13th, 2018CorkSport
Named after the final limited edition Mazda RX-7, Mazda will be commemorating the end of the Rx-8 with a final special edition model, Spirit R, that will go on sale in Japan only on November 24th of this year. The manual version of the Mazda RX-8 Spirit R is based on the RX-8 Type RS and the a six-speed automatic will be modeled after the Type E.
Both of the new models will feature an exclusive SPIRIT R badge, black bezels for exterior lighting, red front and rear brake calipers, and a piano-black transmission tunnel trim. The manual transmission will also include special bucket seats from Recaro and bronze 19” alloy wheels with 225/40R19 tires whereas the automatic will feature black leather seats, steering wheel and parking brake lever that feature red stitching, a sports suspension, larger brakes, and Gun-metal finish 18” alloy wheels with 225/45R18 tires.
“Although RX-8 production is ending, the rotary engine will always represent the spirit of Mazda and Mazda remains committed to its ongoing development.” Said Takashi Yamanouchi, Mazda’s Representative Director, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO, in a press release from Mazda, giving glimmer of hope for rotary fans that development for the RX-7’s successor is still on the table at Mazda headquarters.
Mazda expects to sell 1,000 units of the limited edition model before the Mazda RX-8 production ends in June of 2012. Prices start at $40,675 with the six-speed automatic transmission and $42,400 with the six-speed manual.
Mazda’s rotary engine history
1961 Jul Signs a technical contract with NSU and Wankel
1967 May Announces the completion of the rotary engine and introduces the Cosmo Sport 110S
1968 Jul Introduces the Familia Rotary Coupe/Mazda R100
1969 Oct Introduces the Luce Rotary Coupe/Mazda R130 Coupe
1970 May Introduces the Capella Rotary/Mazda RX-2 series
1971 Sep Introduces the Savanna Rotary/Mazda RX-3 is introduced
1972 Nov Introduces the Luce Rotary/Mazda RX-4 series
1973 Jun Cumulative production of rotary engine vehicles reaches 500,000 units
1975 Apr Introduces the Roadpacer
1975 Oct Introduces the Cosmo AP/Mazda RX-5
1977 Jul Introduces the Cosmo L (Landau top)
1977 Oct Introduces the Luce Legato/Mazda 929L
1978 Mar Introduces the Savanna RX-7/Mazda RX-7
1978 Nov Cumulative production of rotary engine cars reaches 1 million units
1981 Nov Introduces the new Cosmo and Luce/Mazda 929 rotary series
1986 Apr Cumulative production of rotary engine vehicles reaches 1.5 million units
1986 Sep Introduces the fully redesigned Luce
1990 Apr Introduces the Eunos Cosmo featuring a three-rotor rotary engine
1991 Jun The Mazda 787B wins the 59th Le Mans 24-Hour endurance race
1991 Dec Introduces the fully redesigned RX-7
2002 Mar Introduces the SPIRIT R final limited edition Mazda RX-7
2003 Apr Introduces the Mazda RX-8
Gwynne-
Mazda Special Edition RX-8 Spirit R Marks End of Line for Production October 11th, 2011CorkSport
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