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Back to the Track

The Oregon Region SCCA series came to an end last week and I made it to 6 of the 9 events, along the way meeting a number of people I look forward to seeing again next year and learning more than I had anticipated about SCCA and the people involved. I learned many things about my driving and the Speed3, both of which have room for improvement.

Most importantly I had a great time and I helped support the folks that run the tracks as well as a few of the clubs that sponsor these events. The fewer people that are willing to pay to play diminish the options or up the price for those of us that love motorsports. If you are interested in getting into motorsports, improving your driving skills, or are even just curious about it I strongly encourage you to participate.

You can learn a lot from watching the competition, and watching other people run is also an important part of improving your skills as a driver. Both locally and nationally, Solo and Pro Solo, there were some amazingly skilled drivers present. It was less surprising but still interesting to see how close some cars perform compared to others, classification aside.

For people wanting to get out and try a relatively inexpensive and safe afternoon of racing AutoX is a great option with a wide variety of cars competing at local levels. A few weeks ago some fellow Mazda owners came down from Seattle to play at PIR with a few locals and I would venture a bet that a few of these guys will be back, at least occasionally, or progress on to different venues including track days. In fact a few of us are planning for next year already.

The racing bug takes hold slowly for some and moves others from zero to obsessed in a mere few hours of play. My class (DSP) was an interesting story and not uncommon. Three was the average number of competitors in the DSP class I ran in and the two other gentlemen that show up regularly have been racing for a few years. I ended up finishing second overall. Second place is not bad for simply showing up and giving AutoX a go, so I am definitely OK with the results, I may even go get myself that 2nd place trophy (or plaque) if I remember to attend the year end banquet.

I would encourage anyone that reads this to take your car out, stock or not and have a good time learning your limits and those of your car or just practice and enjoy the company of some friendly folks. There is plenty of encouragement and the potential for an award if you make it out at least a few times a year. At the very least you help support racing in a safe, constructive venue.

AutoX runs rain or shine. Wet sucks, big time, but it exaggerated the limits of my skill and the limits of the car which gave me plenty to think about. Dry days are amazing, and I especially enjoyed the dry weather we had up at Packwood. I fought the street tires all summer while most folks around me had dedicated racing tire/wheel combinations, a nice guy in a BMW that regularly plagued me (the way locusts devour crops) being one of those.

The biggest thing I got out of this season was finding a line, looking ahead and knowing where I had to be. Navigating a sea of little orange cones by ones self takes a bit of practice even when you think you know where you’re going. I watched plenty of folks miss cones, or gates, time and time again as well as people that just get lost mid course. Funny as it is to watch folks get lost I do not laugh too hard as I have been in that position. Other factors like tire pressure and suspension set up are also quite important, and I spent time exploring variations to assist with turn in and produce some modicum of over-steer. The problem I have with second gear has yet to be resolved and I encountered a couple people who experienced the same issue in Speed 3’s. The gas pedal, when to be on or off the gas and how to keep boost up with some finesse. I am not consistent enough yet to be able to use the pedal they way the car wants me to yet, unexpected lines or jerky driving throw me into my “drive angry” mode.

If people have to get their exercise chasing the cones I’ve mowed down in order for me to get better then I say practicing will be a win-win situation (as long as you’re not the cone). All in all there’s still lots of good stuff to learn and anything fun to learn should be practiced regularly.

I plan to run one last AutoX this year with the local Porsche club and after that more mods for the car and wait as patiently as I am able for next year. I feel some HPDE’s, track days, will be in order as well.

In closing I would like to give a big “thank you” to our good friends Bob and Randal for the pointers and getting me headed in the right direction, and to all the other folks along the way that helped or just hung out. I had no trouble finding someone willing to offer advice or share experiences with at the events along the way. Ride alongs are also fun I discovered, my favorite being a new Porsche Cayman S driven by a very aggressive but friendly fellow. What an awesome ride!

So, for those of you that are still unsure, come on out, get a ride along, or two or three, and decide if you want to be behind the wheel.

You’ll never regret it.

– Travis

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Engine Protection? CorkSport’s Got it Covered

Being one of the product development engineers here, I have seen many ideas submitted by customers. Some crazy, some very practical, some impossible and some of them eventually grow to become a part that we produce and sell. I have never seen more people interested and dedicated to any other submitted idea than a skidplate built specifically for their 3. Being that this is not something we typically sell, we thought, why not.

You wanted a larger opening for oil filter changes? Done. A one-piece aluminum design mounted to the sub-frame that won’t flop around in the wind? Whammy. More ground clearance? Shazam. An undertray that will protect against the elements better than the stock plastic one? You got it. (The lowest part of the skidplate is directly mounted to the sub-frame via two M12 and two M14 bolts to factory threaded holes.). Finally, something that won’t rip off when you reverse out of your parking spot in a foot of snow? Check.

The result of your input is the product below. A piece that reminds me of the many winters in Minnesota and the UP of Michigan where I would have loved to have had this on my car.

– Jake

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Remember When…

I have had quite a few “I remember you” moments this year. What I have noticed is that customers from back in the MX-3 heydays have been calling up and picking up parts for their newer Mazdas. Most of the cars have been Mazdaspeed 3s or Mazdaspeed 6s but there have been some RX-8 owners in there too. When I say back in the MX-3 heydays I mean 1998-2001, the early years of CorkSport. This was when the import market really was taking off. Back when drag racing imports seemed to be the trendy thing to do with your car.

It is fun to spend some time chatting about old events like the MxWest meets in B.C. or meeting up with customers at the import drag races in Oregon and California when people call or email.

It really makes my day to see a note on an order saying “long time customer” in the order referral field or getting a phone call from someone I haven’t spoken to for over 6 years who has questions about some of our new parts. I have a pretty good memory so if has been a while since you have called or ordered feel free to mention it. There is a good chance I will remember you.

– Derrick

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Mazda2 Goes Autocrossing

We have put some miles on the Mazda 2 over the last month and a half. We are approaching the 2000 mile mark. At this point the engine is well broken in and up to the challenge of some performance driving.

I had a chance to Autocross the Mazda 2 on Sept 18th at a local SCCA event held at Portland International Raceway. I signed up the car for time only runs to see how it would do. If the Mazda 2 was to be in a specific class it would be ST class according to the SCCA rules with the current modifications. This would pit me up against Mazda 3s, Honda Civics, Mini Coopers (non S models), etc.

Since I brought up modifications, the CorkSport Mazda 2 currently has a prototype CorkSport Short Ram Intake, H&R Sport Springs, and H&R 25mm wheel spacers.

The course that was laid out was tight and technical with not many sections to build up speed. The weather decided to liberally apply water to the course making setting record speeds pretty tough. After taking my turn working on the course and watching other cars maneuver through it was my turn to give a go. I do have experience driving around cones racing rally cross so I am not a total novice. This also means I had expectations of what the 2 would do on the auto cross course.

For the first run I left the DSC (dynamic stability control) turned on. I wanted to see how much affect it would have at a maximum drive. The first few corners went well and I could not feel the DSC engage at any point. When I hit the first short slalom I felt the car try to rein in my driving. A quick back and forth transition around the 3rd cone combined with me applying the brakes to get the car to unload the rear tires to make a quick right hand turn got the DSC light to kick on. I could tell the car closed the throttle and killed some of the power because it took a second to get my momentum back up for a “Chicago Box”.


Overhead view of cones as a “Chicago Box”

With the Mazda 2 the Chicago box was a breeze, just drive in and out with just steady speed and quick steering inputs. After the Chicago box there were a few more corners and into another slalom which once again the DSC came back half way through it. What is happening is the cone side front tire is unloading enough for the wheel to slip and it triggers the DSC. After the end of the slalom there was a tight left hand corner which transitioned to a longer sweeping corner. This corner trigger the DSC as the car wanted to under steer to the outside. I was off and on the throttle trying to get the car to rotate and get back in tighter to the apex of the corner. With the DSC turned on the throttle inputs did not help. The final section of the course was a short straight which did a 180 turn to the left and the end of the course with the timing lights. To make the corner with the Mazda 2 I opted for the e-brake approach. It worked ok but I was caught in 2nd gear so I didn’t have enough power to quickly get across the finish line after the turn. I netted a 52.68 for a time on the run which was ok for the really wet course.

The second run I ramped it up a bit. I took the DSC off and pushed the car as hard as I could. I discovered several things on the second run.

#1: The car will really under steer if pushed hard in the wet. I tried off and on throttle, left foot braking, Finnish flicks, you name it to get the 2 to rotate with no really sure fire method that worked.

#2: You can get rubber on the 1st to 2nd gear change with the DSC off. There were two spots where I had to get into second gear due to bouncing off the rev limiter and both of them occurred just before the slalom sections.

#3: With the DSC off, you can get the ABS to engage quite often. I had the ABS turn on several times with hard braking and turning which would unload a rear tire. With the brakes applied and weight transfer it was enough to cause the rear tire to lock up and trigger the ABS.

#4: Using the E-brake on the last corner only works so-so. When you get the back of the 2 swung around and get back on the throttle the car will under steer pushing you really wide. This resulted in some extra time getting the car lined up with the timing lights at the end of the run.

#5: You can use the E-brake to get the car to really slide sideways. Unfortunately the under steer takes affect after a few seconds and ruins the fun but not before you can get some great pictures.

The second run netted me a 51.86 second time but I hit some cones in the process. The third run I picked up a passenger to take along. I could tell the extra ballast was in the car. The run was slower despite not hitting any cones. If you are going to race a Mazda 2 in Autocross make sure you leave the passengers out until the scoring runs are done. My 3rd run was 53.03 seconds.

I got a chance to try out several different techniques for the three extra runs which had mixed results. The big handling obstacle to overcome is the under steer in the Mazda 2. We have a solution in the works so check back for updates.

So how did I do compared to the other cars which I would be classed against in ST? There was a Mazda 3 hatch which was running at the same time which posted times of 53.96, 54.43, and 53.59 seconds. A Mazdaspeed 3 running at the same time posted times of 55.07, 53.18, and 52.94 seconds. The Mazdaspeed 3 would be in a different class due to the power modifications but you can see the 2 would be competitive against it. If you compare the times against the more powerful cars you can see the Mazda 2 would do well. I want to try out the Mazda 2 on high speed auto cross courses to see if I would have the same success against the same cars.

Overall I really enjoyed running the Mazda 2 in the auto cross. It handled better than I expected with my driving style and proved to be very predictable.

I would like to give a thank you to Ceejay for the pictures I used in the blog. He stood out in the rain shooting pictures while I and the other MazdasNW people drove around the cones during the afternoon.

– Derrick

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Calling all Mazda2 Owners: New Parts On the Way!

After putting almost two thousand miles on our new Mazda 2, we have already added our own touches to the car to make it a true CorkSport vehicle. The two pictures below shows our CorkSport License Plate Relocation Bracket, which has been modified from the current Mazda 3 application to not only to fit on the passenger side of the vehicle, but also with a prototype Lexan frame (Production part would be a black opaque Lexan with our new CS logo etched on the face if we do go with Lexan). It utilizes the stock tow hook location so no drilling or cutting is required.


Another new product we have in the works for release in the near future is and LED kit that would replace the license plate, hatch, and interior lights with LED’s (license plate light can be seen in picture below reflecting off the ground). The kit would also include two LED amber blinker bulbs (for the front blinkers) with built in resistors to keep flash rates normal, but with an updated and refined look. Additionally, we are getting ready to release a fog/DRL light kit (shown in the picture below) for the 2 as well as the 3, 6, CX-7 and RX-8. As you can see in the picture below, the 23 LED bulbs put off a 6,000K color, which matches the LED light kits that we currently sell.

Finally, we are finishing up testing and validation of our CorkSport Power Series Short Ram Intake for the Mazda 2. It includes all of the features of past CS SRI kits such as a silicone coupler, T-bolt clamps, and a machined and anodized MAF housing (anodized version not shown in picture) and CS logo etched post anodizing.


Look for all these products to be available in the very near future. Don’t see a product in the works for your 2 that you want to see made? Have an idea for any other part you want to see get made? Submit a product idea here.

– Jake