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Compete and Win!

The Oregon Region SCCA Solo Director stopped by CorkSport this week and during our discussion, he brought up the topic of the national event and contingency awards that he and the other driver for his car had won. I missed the national tour event this year from other obligations, but it got me thinking, “what if I had competed and won my class.”

So I hopped on the computer and took a look at the SCCA national webpage to see what contingencies are offered to the winners of the National Solo tour.

#1 Mazdaspeed. Mazda pays out $200 for first and $100 for second for any Mazda who is registered with their program.

#2 Kumho. I am currently running #2 Kumho EXS tires on the CorkSport Mazda 2 and Kuhmo pays out big time if you win especially in the street tire classes. First place pays out $600 in product credit, second place is $400 in product credit and third place is $300. The tire size I use is 205/50/15 which goes for around $90 a tire. Even third place would almost pay for a set of new tires.

If you wanted to give it a shot in the Pro-Solo event (the Pro Solo event was the weekend after the national solo tour) there is even more available if you can get a class win.

#1 Mazdaspeed. Mazda pays out $200 for first and $100 for second for any Mazda who is registered with their program for a class win. If you go on the challenge they bump it up to $400 for a win and $200 for second place.

#2 Kumho. Kumho pays out the same for the street tire classes as the national solo win. For the challenge first place pays out $300 in product credit, second place is $200 in product credit and third place is $150.

#3 Hawk Performance. Hawk gives out $100 per class win and $100 for the challenge win.

So hypothetically if I could pull off a class win for two weekends of racing it would add up to a total of $2500 in products. Not too shabby for having a great time driving around cones. I am fortunate that the events are only 2 hours away for me. Some of the competitors I saw in the entry list came from as far as Texas.

Remember, even if you think you might try to attend a national event, make sure you register with the contingency sponsor before the event. Some require registering at the beginning of the year so read the fine print.

-Derrick

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CorkSport Announces Expansion of Mazdaspeed 3 Front Mount Intercooler Product Line

CorkSport Performance is pleased to announce another addition to our Front Mount Intercooler line for the 2010+ Mazdaspeed 3. The latest kit is designed specifically to accommodate the CorkSport Power Series Short Ram Intake, giving customers the flexibility to purchase a kit that will accommodate a short ram intake while providing the maximum air cooling capabilities that can only be achieved with a front mount intercooler.

The factory top mounted intercooler can easily be over worked and overheated due to its smaller size. In return, the intake air temperatures rise causing a loss in power. Rather than mount the intercooler under the hood where it receives minimal air flow and is constantly surrounded by engine heat, the CorkSport Front Mount Intercooler Kit for the 2010+ Mazdaspeed 3 features an optimum front mount position to maximize exposure to ambient airflow. This not only increases overall cooling at every boost level, but dramatically reduces heat soak.

Unlike many other front mount intercoolers, the CorkSport Front Mount Intercooler for Short Ram Intake does not require any cutting or trimming of the vehicle and features a 24x6x3.5” aluminum core with custom cast end tanks and 2.25” aluminum mandrel bent piping with bead rolled ends connected with your choice of black, red, or blue silicone couplers and stainless steel T-bolt clamps.

The CorkSport FMIC Kit for SRI has been developed and tested specifically for the 2010+ MazdaSpeed 3 in all types of conditions including hot and cold, rain and snow, freeway driving, and stop and go traffic. During testing, the Front Mount Intercooler saw a pressure drop of approximately 2psi and a maximum efficiency of 85%. When coupled with the CorkSport Short Ram Intake, customers will benefit from substantial gains in torque and horsepower.

The best value on the market, CorkSport will be offering the new Front Mount Intercooler Kit which includes all of the needed installation hardware and a two-year standard warranty. As an added value, customers will now also be able to purchase the CorkSport Power Series Short Ram Intake at a reduced price with the purchase of the Front Mount Intercooler Kit.

For more information about the CorkSport 2010+ Mazdaspeed 3 Front Mount Intercooler Kit, please visit https://www.corksport.com/corksport-2010-mazdaspeed-3-fmic-kit-for-short-ram-intake.html

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Patent Drawing Leaked for Next Generation Mazda MX-5 Miata

The Japanese publication, Holiday Auto Magazine, intercepted a patent drawing of the next generation Mazda MX-5 Miata while it was on its way to the Tokyo Patent Office this week and gave the world a glimpse of what’s to come for this hotly anticipated sports car.

The intercepted drawing gives us a view of its front end which, based on the dashed outline, suggests that Mazda will be ditching the smiley face in a return to the more classic look of the ellipse grille and round fog light recesses seen in the MX-5’s predecessors. Fortunately, the pop-up headlights will remain a thing of the past and the new headlights will be getting some updated technology with LED lighting.

The MX-5 has had three different generations throughout its 21 year history, numerous design updates and even more engine changes. The new MX-5 will reportedly remain a rear-wheel drive compact sports coupe. Sources say that engineers have been ordered to cut 720 lbs from the 2,480-pound curb weight of the current model with a goal of getting the Miata back to its original weight of 2,178 pounds. To achieve this goal, engineers are using high-strength steel for the body and are said to be planning to power the Mazda MX-5 with a 1.5-liter SkyActiv-G four-cylinder engine that will produce up to 160 horsepower and will be mated to a six-speed manual transmission with an option to change to a dual-clutch semi-automatic transmission.

The new Mazda MX-5 will bow out as a concept car next year before the production model is slated to be unveiled at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. In the mean time, we can expect more speculation and opinions on the future of the most famous sports car in the world to continue as additional details are provided.

Gwynne-

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Mazfest: The Mazda Family Reunion

Mazfest returned once again this year to the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana CA. Sponsored by Mazda Owners Club of California, Mazdas247, and the Southern California RX Club, this years event featured autocross, an HPDE track day (high performance Driver Education), and of course the car show. On the day of the event, CorkSport was there in full force and the weather gave us sunny skies and a decent breeze and of course we were greeted with the usual smog from the east end of LA.

Mazfest showcases one of the widest varieties of Mazdas of any event CorkSport attends each year and the cars being shown this year ranged from a beautiful R100 to a brand new 2011 Mazdaspeed 3 and everything in between.

CorkSport recruited two of our California Mazdaspeed 3 customers to showcase their rides in our booth. One had the complete package of CorkSport power series products installed including the Downpipe, 80mm Racepipe, 80mm Cat Back Exhaust, and a CorkSport Ram-Air FMIC kit.

The other Mazdaspeed 3 had the CorkSport TMIC installed along with a host of other performance parts and was also the featured ride of the month on the Mazdas247 forum in July.

There were run groups out on the track all day with their owners putting their cars through their paces. Cars on the track ranged from stock to full on race cars including a turbocharged road race Rx8. There were a few mishaps on the HPDE event that you could find when walking around the garages.

The worst example I saw was a blow out suffered on the track by a Porsche. It took out the rear bumper, damaged the paint, and looks to have hit the radiator too.

All in all, it was a great day and we got to connect with many of our CorkSport customers and enjoy the show. I recommend attending next year if you are able to.

-Derrick

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Improving Your Shopping Experience on CorkSport.com

A few weeks ago CorkSport did a two day Facebook Fan Promotion. We asked our fans to provide us with feedback on their shopping experience on CorkSport.com and in exchange, we would randomly select one fan to receive a CorkSport gift certificate worth up to $300.00 in value. The amount of the gift certificate began at $50.00 and increased by $1.00 for each additional respondent over the first 25 that answered the survey. We had 242 fans respond to our post and we gave one lucky Facebook fan a gift certificate to CorkSport.com worth $267.00! Our lucky winner, Jeff Hoetzler, has already purchased a CorkSport Short Ram Intake with his winnings and we hope he is enjoying the increase in power on his Mazda 6!

Not only did we have some fun and get to giveaway free stuff to our loyal fans, but CorkSport also benefitted from this promotion by being able to gather some critical data from our customers and use that feedback to improve the shopping experience at CorkSport.com. Though most of the feedback was positive and we were pleased to see that the overall quality of the online experience for our users is good, we were able to identify some areas for improvement and, as is the CorkSport way, take immediate action to improve upon our website.

We received several suggestions requesting that we maintain the presence of the navigation bar on the left side of the website for the entire website experience, no matter where in the product catalog you were. Done! Now, navigating through our site is even simpler and moving back and forth through the various categories is a breeze!

We also received some comments on navigation issues that were faced when customers entered the knowledgebase so we have improved upon that as well. Now when you click on the knowledgebase, you will be taken directly to a categorized landing page, allowing you to easily navigate to the information that is most relevant to your year and model vehicle. This will give you easier access to a database of useful information, from answers to common pre-sales questions, complete installation instructions and installation videos to customer comments and other useful articles about our products.

There were several requests for a photo gallery, which is in the works and should be coming to a CorkSport.com near you in the coming weeks along with new updates on our project cars, so keep a look out for more improvements to come and let us know if you have any more suggestions you would like to see incorporated into our website. We’re always on the look out for ways to make your shopping experience, shipping experience, customer service experience and above all, the products you purchase top of the line.

Gwynne –