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What Is Required at the Drag Strip?

 

Good day all of my CorkSport followers.  Is anyone else excited for warm weather, and track days?  Now is the time to get that Mazdaspeed prepped, modded, and out to the track.  

The CorkSport team has plenty of experience when it comes to track days. We have noticed in the past year more and more people have been getting into a Mazdaspeed platform, and before too long they are modding the car to test its capabilities.  Derrick is our road course guy in his 2015 Mazda 3, and I am the guy that likes the 1320. So what do you need to be able to run at the track? Protecting yourself, and making sure the car is properly put together can affect if you will be able to run your Mazdaspeed down the 1320.

Clothing

You will not be able to race your Mazdaspeed unless you wear pants, and closed toe shoes.  Every track you go to will require you to wear these two things. Every little bit counts especially if you have a high horsepower Mazdaspeed.  We have all seen the videos of accidents happening. I would hate to roll my Mazdaspeed, break glass, and have glass bits hitting my legs. So don’t forget those pants, and yoga pants do not count to all of you lady drivers.

Helmet

Each track has standard rules when it comes to safety equipment.  Depending on how fast your Mazdaspeed runs will determine what safety equipment you will need in order to race.  13.99 and faster you will need to make sure and wear a helmet. Also, if you run 13.99 and faster, you will not be able to have a passenger in the car with you.  If it is your first time at the track and you run faster than a 13.99 without a helmet, the track officials will ask you to wear a helmet moving forward. Failure to comply could get you removed from the track.

Vehicle Maintenance

This is probably the most important part of the inspection process when going to the track.  If you have been racing when oil/coolant dumps onto the track then you know how long it can take to get that stuff cleaned up.  Here are a few things the officials look for when you are trying to race your Mazdaspeed.

These things are non-negotiable.  If your Mazdaspeed does not pass any of these then the track officials will not let you run your car down the track.  All you fast guys out there need to double check with your local track to see what you have to do to the car depending on how fast you run.

Additional Safety Equipment

If you do have a Mazdaspeed capable of 11’s or faster, then you will be required to do a lot more to the car in order to safely run.  I would double check with your local track, but every track I have been to require you to have a roll cage, and a fire suit if you are running 11’s or faster in the 1320.  Also, if you have your battery relocated into the hatch, you will need a kill switch mounted somewhere on the rear of the car just in case you roll when racing.

READERS BEWARE:

Going to the track is highly addicting.  CorkSport will not be responsible for empty wallets in an attempt to make your Mazdaspeed go faster.  CorkSport will also not be held responsible for pulled muscles in your cheeks from having too much fun.  However, if you must modify your Mazdaspeed, CorkSport will be there to help you reach your goals!  Stay safe, and ZOOM ZOOM people.

Cheers,

Luke

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3 Turbos and a Supercharger for Mazda

A year ago we were all complaining at Mazda saying “where is the forced induction?” and it looks like Mazda was listening.

First up is the Mazda 6 turbo which Mazda has priced to sell as you can get into a GT Mazda 6 turbo pretty affordably.  Granted there is no manual gearbox but I can say first hand they are fun to drive and the torque from the boost is really addictive.  I find it hard not to want to screw with people in the 6 since it has no visible exterior queues that it has a turbo. I will say we have already been tweaking on the car and found that it does respond well to modifications.

Second up is the SkyactivX which Mazda says will be available later this year.  This engine is supercharged to allow it to be an HCCI engine, aka compression gas motor.  The forced induction setup is pretty tricky and the initial look I have done with it I get we can crank it up a bit more to improve the efficiency of the intercooler to give it more heat capacity to allow you to use the boost longer in the car for high-performance driving.  Until it shows up we won’t know for sure but we are looking forward to trying it out.

Third is the Mazda 6 diesel which uses 2 turbos.  Mazda tried to release the 6 in the past but when they couldn’t match what VW was doing they declined to just “Send It” as the car didn’t perform as they needed it to and still hit the emissions targets without urea injection.  Later we all found out VW was a cheating bastard which kept us from having the Skyactiv diesel engine here to crank up the boost on. About every publication in the planet has posted up about the 2018 Mazda 6 diesel being seen in the EPA parking lot for testing along with a pile of other diesel models.  This is a good sign if Mazda says it will pass the US emissions and handed one over to the EPA we can expect a Mazda 6 turbo soon.

I am going out on a limb here and saying that besides the announced Mazda 3 Skyactiv we are going to get something fun in the new Mazda 3 ~ a year after the initial release.  If you are reading this Mazda, please give us a Mazda 3 GT with a turbo motor.

-Derrick

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My Journey into the CorkSport Family

This may be a little bit abnormal for a CorkSport blog, but I wanted to OFFICIALLY introduce myself to you all and give you all some insight on what it’s like being involved in such a crazy and awesome family known as CorkSport.

My name is Daniel, and I’m the newest addition to the CS Engineering team. You may have seen me dotted around on social media or seen my name at the bottom of a few blogs throughout the last year. If you came to the CS dyno day last summer, I was the one running around absolutely covered in car gunk from hooking cars up to the dyno.

 

So what do I do at CS other than getting unnecessarily dirty? I am a product development engineer; which means I get to play around with cars all day and create parts for you all. Whether it’s designing on a CAD program, test fitting prototypes, or creating installation instructions, I strive to make awesome parts for your Mazdaspeeds and Mazdas, so you guys and gals can make your dream cars.

My passion for cars means I have found my dream job AND I was lucky to find it after graduating from the University of Washington. I had a few interesting internship experiences during college; one at a company designing beer brewing tanks, and another working at the Seattle Monorail but the dream was always the automotive aftermarket industry. Growing up I was always into cars, but I knew I wanted to be in the industry once I started driving.

Throughout high school, I drove a 1991 Jeep Wrangler. While interesting, I would not recommend one as a daily driver. I went to college without a car, so I was looking for something fun to have while I was back home over breaks and the summers. I ended up with a 1999 Honda Civic Si. It’s a nice example, but 1.6L of VTEC fury is only fun for so long. I had a turbo build planned, but as college progressed, courses got more difficult, and funds got tighter. I am still driving it around (with no turbo) but still want something more. The plan is to end up with a Mazdaspeed 6 soon.

 

Aside from the obvious excitement of landing what is definitely my dream job, my first experiences at CS were terrific. I spent the first few weeks getting a glimpse of all the different departments and how my job would impact them. This was doubly useful as I also got to know just about everyone in a short period. Once I transitioned into the full engineering role, I had to adapt to a completely new system of part numbering, project management, and time management. In any job, this can get overwhelming at times, but the environment around me made this a smooth transition.

I think the biggest thing I have taken away from my first year at CS is how different it is from everywhere I have worked in the past. With projects, my past job experiences have either been “this needs to be done yesterday” or “it gets done when it gets done.” These two extremes create unnecessary stress and slow progress respectively. With time and project management systems in place at CorkSport, we can maintain a happy medium where we make steady progress every day without feeling rushed. There are definitely times that the timelines get delayed and we feel the pressure, but we account for these in order to plan better in the future.

The people also make a considerable difference at CS. Instead of people just showing up to get a paycheck, everyone on the CorkSport team is passionate about their work and cares about what they do. This creates high-quality work for everyone and a fantastic dynamic where it honestly doesn’t feel like work. It’s more of a family dynamic than a typical workplace environment.

I’ve enjoyed my first year at CorkSport, and I’m excited to be a part of the Mazda community. I plan to produce the best parts that I can for all of you, and I hope to get to know some of you in the process. Stay tuned as I’m sure you’ll be hearing more from me soon!

 

-Daniel

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3D Printing at CorkSport

You may have seen some funny looking parts floating around on the CS channels that did not look like the typical aluminum or steel parts you install on your Mazda or Mazdaspeed.

These plastic parts are made through 3D printing, a method we use often in R&D to really understand the ins and outs of a part. We’ve been getting a lot of questions lately on our 3D printers so I thought I’d run through what they are, how they work, and what we use them for.

3D printing is quite a simple process even though it may not seem so to start. In normal manufacturing, you start with a block of material and cut away portions until you achieve the shape you want. In 3D printing, you add material (usually plastic) layer by layer until the shape you want is achieved.

For a lot of 3D printers, including both of the CorkSport printers, you can visualize a hot glue gun attached to a robot. The robot controls where the “glue” is extruded and once the first layer is complete, the robot simply moves the object downward slightly and another layer begins. The second layer attaches to the first and you slowly gain height and shape until your part is completed.

This method is uses plastic “filament” as the material fed into the machine. Think of a spool of wire but instead of being made of copper, it’s made out of a recyclable plastic. This material is fed into the machine where it is melted and extruded like the glue in the above analogy. Other 3D printers use liquid resin that is solidified layer by layer or a powder material that gets bonded together layer by layer. The image below shows an almost empty vs brand new filament spool for our large 3D printer. To give you some scale, that is a 4 inch inlet air filter next to them– 10kg is a lot of filament!

We have two printers at CorkSport, a large Gigabot, and a small MakerBot 2X. The Gigabot can print anything that will fit in a 2-foot cube which is more than enough space for the majority of CorkSport parts. The MakerBot is much smaller, only about 9.5” by 6” by 6”. We typically use the Gigabit for most of the R&D testing and the MakerBot for making cool stuff for you all! However, the MakerBot uses a different plastic material that is stronger and more resistant to heat, allowing the parts to be tested on a running Mazda (albeit for a short time).

Barett and I use our 3D printers as tools to aid in R&D. We can take apart directly from a design in SolidWorks to a physical object extremely easily. Once we are happy with a design, it gets saved as a “mesh” made up of hundreds or thousands of tiny triangles. This is imported into a “slicer” program that does just as its name says: slices the part into layers. The part information as well as the settings for the print is exported to an SD card, which we use to upload the information to the printer.

Once we hit “print” all we have to do is wait. Smaller parts like brackets and fittings can be printed in an hour or two while large parts like manifolds or intercooler piping can take multiple days. 3D printers enable us to start a print on a Friday afternoon and leave it like this:

When we show up on Monday, the print is complete, ready for a test fit, and looking like this (Mazdaspeed 6 FMIC Piping):

I can’t express enough how much easier it is to have a physical part to test fit than to try to measure in all of the awkward angles and spaces that exist in a Mazdaspeed engine bay and hope your design will fit.

Having the capability to make a quick and inexpensive prototype to throw on a car can save countless hours and headaches down the road. This is why we use 3D printers so extensively: it makes producing great parts for you all so much easier. Some of our manufacturers even use our 3D prints to help understand the part, help with quoting, and even use them for mold/jig making. At CorkSport, our 3D printers are used almost as much as our 10mm sockets!

I’ve just scratched the surface on 3D printers, their uses, and capabilities so, if you have any questions post it down below!

-Daniel

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Tools Every Mazda Owner Needs in their Garage

Tools Every Mazda Owner Needs

Whether you only change your oil or have done multiple engine swaps in your garage, its necessary to have the right tools for the job. Since we do everything from engine builds to big brake kits here at CorkSport, we definitely spent a lot of time wrenching, and have discovered a few “must have” tools along the way.

The basics are a necessity! While you can take apart just about everything on a Mazda with only an 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19, and 21mm socket/wrench, it’s important to have a good mix to make your life that much easier. Short and deep well sockets, multiple drive sizes, lots of extensions, breaker bars, and so on can all help you remove that awkwardly placed bolt.

A few other must-have basics I find myself using in the CS shop:

  • Small 1/4″ drive ratchet-perfect for the 8, 10, and 12mm bolts in tight spaces
  • Ratcheting wrenches-for when a socket just won’t fit. Flex head ones for even more versatility.

 

  • Crows foot wrenches-you won’t use them often but they’re a lifesaver that one time you need them.
  • Impact gun-cordless or pneumatic, these can speed up any install.
  • Wheel safe lug nut socket-the plastic outer sleeve prevents any scratches to your wheels.

 

Developing exhausts for the Mazda lineup means repeated installs/removal of full exhaust systems and Oxygen sensors. This is helped immensely by a proper Oxygen sensor socket and some penetrating fluid. If you’re planning on upgrading your exhaust, I would definitely recommend getting an O2 sensor socket to get it done right.

 

 

One of the more recent tools we have acquired at CS is a set of exhaust hanger pliers. When coupled with some lubrication, these make removing those pesky rubber hangers so much easier.

 

 

While elbow-deep in the engine bay, it is so much easier if you can actually see around the turbo! We are a little spoiled at CS with how well lit the shop is, but for those less lucky, find yourself an under hood light.

 

 

Still having trouble seeing? Pick up a telescoping mirror that you can angle around to try and locate that hard to see nut or bolt. These are also extremely handy if you cannot find a socket or piece of hardware you dropped in the engine bay. Pick up a kit that includes an extendable magnet as well and recovers anything you may drop.

 

I always try to be prepared when performing maintenance or doing an install. Having a factory service manual really helps with this. Torque specifications recommended disassembly procedures, and fastener locations are all laid out in the FSM.

I also try to look for any unusual tools that may be needed for an install as not having the right Allen head socket or external Torx socket can derail an install. Check online for the FSM for your car, most can be found with a little hunting. Certain installs are also made easier with custom vehicle specific tools available from aftermarket companies (the CorkSport Injector Puller for Instance).

 

Last but not least is having a friend to help you with the install. While you cannot keep this very special “tool” in your garage all the time, it can be invaluable to simply have another set of hands around.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, however; I hope it helps out some of you when attempting a difficult install. Have any other special tools you find yourself using when working on your car? Let us know down below!

-Daniel