It is interesting how quickly you forget how smooth the rotary engine is if you haven’t driven one recently. I had a chance to drive our Project RX-8 to a rotary meet in Seattle, which is roughly a 2 hour drive each way. After getting into the car and heading up the freeway the engine is completely invisible while cruising at freeway speeds. The only sign you have of the engine being there is the sound from the intake and exhaust. The rest of the time you just feel the pull of the car while going around the people driving slow in the left lane. All of this without the vibration of a reciprocating engine.
The car I normally drive to events is the 2010 Mazdaspeed 3. The power from the DISI engine in the Mazdaspeed 3 is more like someone whacking you into the seat due to the torque hit when the boost comes on at 3000rpm. The fun is short lived though because you have to shift earlier (about 3000 rpm earlier) than the rotary. The RX-8 is happy to scream all the way to 9000rpm when the buzzer sounds, signaling the fun is about to come to an end at the rev limiter and it is time to change gears. Oh the sound the engine makes at higher RPM with the CorkSport exhaust. It is an intoxicating sound that you don’t want to come to an end. This is as close as you can get to a formula car high RPM sound without going to the racetrack.
If you haven’t driven a rotary powered car I recommend you give it a shot. Just make sure you get a chance to do it with some wide open roads and some corners to enjoy what the rest of us rotary nuts love.
Picking up where we left off last time, the chassis and drivetrain for the FC RX-7 has plenty of potential with minimal modifications. Chassis bracing is a good place to start.
CorkSport offers strut braces for the front and rear strut/shock towers. Some people have questioned the effectiveness of the tower braces in the FC. Speaking from first hand experience, they work very well, and they make a big difference. I have e seen the aftermath of a car hitting a guard rail at highway speeds sideways and what saved the car from crushing itself sideways was the front strut brace. The front is a simple bolt in, and while the rear requires some extra work and includes trimming some metal, it is well worth it.
For underneath the car CorkSport sells the AutoExe Member Brace Set. Think of this is an over the top strut tower brace set for the under side of your RX-7. The chassis brace set ties together multiple points of the suspension to make the chassis more rigid, including tying up the rear differential sub frame to the chassis.
AutoExe Member Brace Set
Next up is lowering the car. Lowering the car gives it a lower center of gravity and you should also stiffen the dampening of the suspension to go with the springs. Tokico Illumina shocks combined with Eibach springs are a good combination for street driven vehicles. With the installation of lowering springs you will need to address the camber for the rear suspension. The design of the RX-7 suspension requires a camber adjustment kit which CorkSport offers as well. The rear camber link kit adjusts the rear sub frame correcting the camber on both sides of the car.
Rear Camber Adjuster
If you are seeking maximum performance out of the suspension you can change out the suspension bushings with polyurethane parts. The good part about the bushings is the upgrade to urethane makes the suspension work without extra deflection. The trade off is extra vibration from the stiffer bushings into the chassis. CorkSport offers the Prothane bushing kit for the RX-7.
Drivetrain mounts will also need to be replaced. It is not really a choice anymore, the engine, transmission, and differential mounts will be worn out after ¼ century. CorkSport offers Mazdaspeed replacement mounts for all of the drivetrain. The stiffer rubber used in the engine and transmission mounts limit engine movement to help cope with the extra power and put the power out the drivetrain instead of moving the engine around. The rear differential mounts are needed to deal with the increased torque load of the drive train under hard acceleration. We have seen cars in the past come into the shop with a clunk noise from the rear end of the car only to find the front differential mount broken.
Mazdaspeed Engine Mounts
With the increased power made from the engine modifications in the first blog you will need to upgrade the clutch. For a street driven RX-7 the ACT street clutch kit is hard to beat. The reason for the street version of the clutch is that puck clutches tend to chatter when engaged from a stand still and make driving in stop and go traffic a pain. With the installation of the clutch a lightweight flywheel is a good idea as well. ACT also offers lightweight flywheels in two varieties, Streetlight and Prolight. The reason for a lighter flywheel is engine response. With a lighter flywheel the engine has less mass to spin and because of this engine revs build faster. The difference between the two is the weight. The street version weighs more which helps with keeping the inertia of the motor going. This is helpful with making smooth starts and stops while on hills. I would choose the pro light myself. Having a rev happy rotary engine just makes me smile. When purchasing a lightweight flywheel it is important to get a counterweight. The stock RX-7 flywheel has the counterweight built in but the aftermarket flywheels do not.
The last piece of the drive train puzzle is the shifter. It is something you are constantly using in the RX-7 and CorkSport offers a short throw shifter. The short throw shifter decreases the distance you have to move the handle to change gears resulting in quicker shifts. The CorkSport shifter includes all new bushings and seals which are a must since most RX-7s we have seen need to have all of the parts replaced. If you are wondering what I am talking about there check out the shifter in your RX-7. If you can move the shifter left to right while in gear, and it feels loose and vague when shifting, or it doesn’t return to the center while in neutral you need to replace the bushings and seals at a minimum.
CorkSport Short Shifter
Well, that is it for the chassis and drive train. In the next blog post I will cover the brakes and styling for your RX-7.
It’s released! The downpipe for the 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 is on our shelves and ready to ship out. First off lets cover the obvious questions, why install a downpipe? When installing an aftermarket down pipe several things happen. First the turbo charger requires less effort to quickly spin up due to the removal of the catalyst, so boost will happen at a lower RPM. Secondly, with less restriction and back pressure the turbo will be able to quickly expel more exhaust gases, thus raising the boost and increasing power across the vehicles entire power band.
The CorkSport Mazdaspeed 3 Power Series Downpipe gives you faster turbo spool up which results in a larger power band. Gains in power have been up to 21 wheel horse power when installed on an otherwise stock Mazdaspeed 3.
The downpipes on the 1st Gen MS3 have historically been a bit of a puzzle to work around however our designs are able to avoid throwing a check engine light on first generation DISI equipped vehicles. Other manufacturers of downpipes are hit and miss depending on the manufacturer, with some throwing the occasional random CEL for slow response time and others being more pervasive.
The 2010 models are a bit more elusive and harder to pinpoint the ideal sweet spot for the secondary oxygen sensor that will not throw a check engine light. We are however actively working on resolving the CEL and if successful we hope to offer a retro fit kit for previously purchased downpipes.
If you have any questions about the 2010 MS3 downpipe feel free to shoot us an email or give us a call. We’ve got several more things coming down the pipe so stay tuned.
Hello, my name is Troy Rutherford and I am a new product development engineer here at CorkSport. I have a life long obsession with making sparks fly in the shop. I grew up watching my dad design, fabricate and fix equipment on the family farm. It all started when I got my first car at the age of 14, it has been all downhill since then. I got a mechanical engineering degree in 2002 and have been designing aftermarket products for the past 8 years.
In my spare time I spend countless hours in my personal shop every week, bending, welding, and fabrication parts primarily used for the off road industry. I know my way around a shop and have designed and fabricated several long travel 4 link suspensions, interior and exterior roll cage, axle modifications, gear installs, and have burned through several miles of welding wire in the past couple years.
I have a unique skill set in finding innovative solutions to solve common everyday problems that we all face, along with a keen eye for detail, ascetics, and clean lines. Solidworks is my CAD package of choice and along the way I have designed some pretty intricately detailed parts that are used throughout the world by military and law enforcement.
So what floats my boat? I love coming up with a bigger and better mouse trap. Pushing the envelope with new designs that will expand upon the existing products offered at CorkSport. With my expertise in the off road industry, fabrication skills, and experience in machining I hope to carry my ability across motorsport lines to Mazdas.
I look forward to increasing my knowledge of Mazdas along with gaining knowledge and insight into the world of aftermarket Mazda performance modification. After all, I want to find out what makes you tick.
If there is a product that you think would make a great addition to our ever expanding product line let me know! If you ever run into me at a show be sure and say hello!
I am the “New, Old” guy that answers the phone here at CorkSport along with Derrick.
I used to work here a few years ago, left to explore other job options and go back to school, and now I’ve come back home to CorkSport. There are lots of changes but some things are still the same.
If you send a email in from the web page I’m the guy that gets it. One of the questions I get frequently is “How much is shipping.” So I thought I would share with you a easy way to get a quote right from our web page.
To Estimating Shipping Costs:
Add the part to your cart
Click on the view cart tab
Click on estimate shipping cost
Then enter your information on the right
This will give you a good estimate of what shipping is going to cost you. You still may want to check with us for shipping costs on large products like body kits and stuff like that.
If you have any questions please email us anytime.
