Watching the Polish round of WRC (World Rally Championship) racing I realized how out of touch United States is with the rest of the planet in regards to auto racing. Look at the crowds that show up at the events in all of the countries that the WRC stops at. Oh wait that’s right Speed channel no longer shows the events so it forces us to download the event via torrents of the TV shows after they happen from Eurosport.
Back to my commentary, the world (except the US) supports the WRC events. On all of the stages you see crowds lining the roads. The spectators hike to the events just to get a chance to watch the cars blast by at a distance of 10 feet from the action. That’s right, no fences or guard rails, nothing. Stand on the outside of a corner and you can get showered with rocks or other debris (and possibly a car as if they blow a corner). You don’t hear of NASCAR shutting down an event because of too many spectators.
You also can’t match the surprises the events have. For example in an earlier event this year there were wild horses running across the roads, you don’t get that in an Indy car event. About the biggest critter you have showing up at a racetrack in the US is a rabbit. Weather doesn’t stop the events either. They will race a WRC in the worst weather including snow, mud, freezing rain, you name it.
Monte Carlo WRC round on ice covered roads shown above.
Rally racing has been in the US for years but it always seems to be out of the public eye. The WRC did visit Washington State once in the 80s but that was before the events were really televised. US rallying has shown up in the X Games, which has brought awareness of rally racing to the masses but it really has never caught on. I believe it is coverage of the events by racing press here in the US that is to blame for this.
You can find references about the events at the fringe. Grass Roots Motorsports (GRM) prints rally racing information from club and national US events but you never hear about anything outside of North America. Don’t get me wrong I am happy they do publish information but GRM is not exactly mainstream media. Speed channel showed the WRC for a few seasons then dropped it when they became NASCAR-vision.
You don’t get views like this at NASCAR tracks.
So if you are reading this blog post take a look out there at what the rest of the planet is up to for racing. You may be surprised at how exciting the racing can be on a gravel road at 125mph.
I mentioned last time that I’d tell you all a little bit about myself during my next blog post, so here it goes. My name is Jason Griffith, I am the new product development engineer here at Corksport. I am dedicated to streamlining our product development and expanding our ability to bring a wider variety of products to market while continuing to improve and promote our long time quality at a reasonable price.
I’m an all around car guy, worked in the aircraft and robotics industries for the last five years and I’m glad to finally make it into an industry that I have been passionate about for years as an enthusiast. Over the last 10 years I’ve built a few interesting cars and have really enjoyed the challenges and dynamics of standalone engine management and forced induction applications.
Some of the things I do in my spare time are design over-the-top intercooling systems, engine speed / angle and phase sensors for adapting aftermarket EMS’ to older engines with distributor ignitions, and working on friends cars (last few were a 1JZ powered ’80 Corolla and a Z31 Nissan w/ VG30DET running a Holset HX40W off a Cummins Turbo Diesel).
Some of my other goals here are to increase the number of mechanical parts we carry by using state of the art CAD and finite element analysis software. I’m an avid SolidWorks fan and I love designing machined parts for function and form. My personal opinion is that form should always follow function, but that doesn’t mean that well designed systems shouldn’t look the part in the process.
I’m also a total geek when it comes to testing and control systems – I love designing mechanisms for measurement and systems analysis. From thermal datalogging systems to model intercooler efficiency and behavior over time and temperature variation to mechanical measurement systems for mapping camshafts and understanding piston kinematics – I simply love learning.
Which is the other reason why I am here, not only do I love to challenge myself with new exciting opportunities to increase my fabrication skills and familiarity with Mazda, but I also love bringing out the engineer that lurks within every enthusiast. We are creative beings and automotive design and tuning puts creativity and applied engineering into the hands of each and every one of us. Working on cars and trucks made me decide to go back to school and become a design engineer and I have enjoyed every moment of it.
I’ve got parts to design, talk to y’all soon. Feel free to drop me an email with any questions or thoughts you may have for new product development – we’re going to add a section to the website for product idea submission in the next quarter as well.
In this age of multi-brand dealerships it’s not too often that you get to visit a Mazda only dealership, let alone a NEW Mazda only dealership. Most of the time the dealers are selling at least one other brand with the Mazda product line but not this time. Alan Webb built a new store for their Mazda franchise and had a performance meet / BBQ to celebrate the grand opening. Of course, I attended the event (on June 26th) and brought along one of our cars.
Anyone with a Mazda was invited to the event and there was a range of vehicles that showed up including some vintage Mazda hardware; an RX2 and RX3. The Mt Hood Miata club and RPNW (Rotary Power North West) made up the majority of cars that attended the event, but there was cars from all over the area.
I brought along the CorkSport project RX8 to the show to display the new CorkSport RX8 tower braces. The RX8 definitely gets lots of looks driving around.
Alan Webb stopped by the show as well and his comment about the CorkSport RX8 was “That car is hot!” I didn’t take the opportunity to give him a hard time about driving a 350z convertible to the show, next time I will.
A special thanks to Colin in the parts department at Alan Webb for getting the whole show together.
60mm SS Exhaust We just received our first production test exhaust systems for the 2010 Mazda3. These are fully polished T304 stainless steel, mandrel bent 60mm exhaust systems in a single resonator, single muffler system. This combination produces a subtle but noticeably lower tone at cruise/partial throttle and a pleasantly authoritative note at wide open throttle (WOT). We have fabricated both a single exit and dual exhaust configuration, either of which can be used with the 2.0 or 2.5 liter engines (contingent on compatibility with bezels in the rear valence).
The systems will be available in production quantities in the next 2-4 months depending on configuration, and will ship with a race pipe option that will allow the aft catalyst to be removed for racing applications.
The installation is very straightforward – a bolt up for the race pipe to the factory manifold downpipe or a slip compression fitting to the piping aft of the secondary catalyst. The system uses all of the factory exhaust hanger points and allows you to simply unbolt the factory exhaust system and extract it for installation of the full race CS system (although the factory aft muffler heat shield requires a small trim or optional full removal for fitment of the dual exhaust system – a paper template will be included for easy trimming of this heat shield, should you want to retain it in the car). Street legal installation with the factory catalyst requires the pipe to be cut aft of the catalyst for connection to the slip fitting.
Short Ram Intake In tandem with the exhaust installation on one of our local customers’ 2010-2013 Mazda3 w/ 2.5L engine, we installed our prototype short ram intake, featuring a fully molded silicone coupling that locates all of the factory induction fittings in the factory locations, a billet aluminum MAF housing and AEM DryFlow Air Filter. We also had the opportunity to test an intake on another local 2.0L 2010 Mazda3.
Baseline Dyno Pull Before we even breathed on either of the naturally aspirated 2010 Mazda 3′s, we took them for a spin on the DynoJet to get a baseline for the engines. While Mazda claims 167hp@6000rpm and 168lbft@4000 rpm for the 2.5, the results of three baseline dyno pulls show that the car puts down 154hp and 160lbft of torque right out of the box. Conditions were 73°F and 51% Humidity.
First Run & Diagnostics After getting the exhaust installed, I plugged in our MSD DashHawk OBDII logger and display and took a drive. Modifications to the induction system can often times wreak havoc with the fuel system depending on design considerations and location of the Mass Airflow (MAF) sensor relative to the laminar flow of air through the intake pipe and sensor housing. We take great care to engineer our induction systems to function as stock and the DashHawk allows us to monitor the fuel trim variables and MAF details at a variety of driving conditions. This attention to detail gives us the ability to release products with the confidence that they will not flag a check engine light or negatively impact fuel economy due to the computer trying to counteract or overcorrect for the increased airflow into the engine.
The numbers on the DashHawk looked great, and as the day was nearing to an end we handed the car back over to our customer for some longer term evaluation. Five days later we got the car back to check through the datalogs and perform dyno testing.
2.0L Dyno Results Utilizing the single exit exhaust and the Short Ram Intake, we went from a baseline of 118hp/110lbft of torque to a respectable 135hp and 123lbft of torque at the wheels. We’re still working with the intake on this one to get the most out of it while retaining factory fuel trims. The 2.0L results were moderate (with around a 4-5hp/tq gain) below 4000rpm with the majority of the gains came on rapidly at around 4500rpm and held steadily to the 7000rpm redline. This really shows how constrained the stock system was for the smaller 2.0L engine.
2.5L Dyno Results This car finally sounds like it should have from the factory. I almost just chose to drive it home instead of returning it to our customer. Unfortunately my conscience got the best of me, and he drove off excited to test the car out for the weekend. The dyno results on this combination of intake and exhaust were equally as impressive, but dynamically speaking were a bit different from the 2.0L. Where the 2.0L opened up quite a bit at the top end, the stump pulling 2.5L exhibited up to 20lbft of torque gains in the midrange with a consistent 10-12hp gain through the entire powerband. Stock Peak HP & Torque were 158/161, and the intake and exhaust built 171hp and 171lbft of torque.
Future Developments We are excited to work on a number of further developments with the two naturally aspirated Mazda 3′s and would like your feedback on products that you would like to see on the market. We’re hoping to find some time to develop a cold air box for our 2010 Mazda 3 Power Series Short Ram Intake as well…stay tuned for details on what a dramatic impact these cold air boxes have on actual inlet temperature as well as shielding the higher flowing induction system from the hot underhood environment through the use of a well sealed and tested high temperature fiber reinforced polymer. We are also considering offering a high flow spun metallic media catalyst with some of our exhaust systems and would like your feedback on such an offering.
I’m eager to hear of your ideas in the future and will tell you a little more about myself in my next blog post.
This is a message for Mazda North America; Why is the Mazda 2 not in North America? Ford no longer has their hand in the cookie jar so what is the hold up?
I have various personal theories as to why; it will cut into Mazda 3 sales or perhaps production output for the 2 isn’t high enough. The economy is in the tank, so we know Mazda isn’t at its max capacity. People are broke! We cannot afford the more expensive cars, so a smaller car like the 2 makes sense. Its biggest competition would be the Fit, Yaris, and the soon-to-be-offered Fiats. The Mazda 2 gets great gas mileage and would arguably be car the best in class if Mazda sold the DI diesel model in the States.
Personally, I want one because they are super light and prime for upgrading. I would try to fit a 2.3 DISI engine under the hood. Actually, I will fit a 2.3 DISI engine under the hood! A lightly modded 300hp DISI engine in a 2100lb car would produce an absolutely crazy-fun car to drive. Even in stock form, the stock 1.6 liter is rated at 120 hp and torque. If/when Mazda brings the car to North America, you can bet we will be getting more power out of that engine.
When I was in Tokyo last year, I had the opportunity to ride in the AutoExe tuned Demio, which was heading to a lunch meeting with them. The car is just like a Mazda 3 in terms of fit and finish. The interior was nice, not over the top. Despite the 2 being small, it was not uncomfortably small for 4 adult men.
There are rumors we may actually get the Mazda 2 late this year but nothing is available to the dealers yet. Cross your fingers!
