Tag: 2010 Mazdaspeed 3

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When Products in Development Don’t Make the Grade

Things don’t always go as planned. We begin a project thinking our customers will be able to get good results out of a new performance product only to find, when we start testing, those results don’t show up.

An example of this is the CorkSport Cold Pipe. After investing months in the development process, we are choosing to abandon the product and put our development efforts elsewhere. Focus on products that will provide our customers with the type of performance benefits that inevitably did not show up during the testing of this product.

How it all began:

After seeing the great success of our Top Mount Intercooler and the amazing benefits it offered, we wanted to find a way to give customers who chose to stick to a TMIC even more performance. Looking over the TMIC system we noticed that when the air exits the intercooler it immediately hits a wall. It exits the intercooler towards the front of the car, but just after exiting it is forced to the driver side.

Once we identified this potential air flow restriction, we decided that it would be worth it to try and expand the stock cold-pipe to provide a better path for the air to flow, as well as a larger volume to accommodate the increased flow seen with a CorkSport TMIC.

The development process:

We scanned the stock pipe into a solid model so we could improve flow and still provide a great OEM fit.

Once we had a CAD model, we noticed the access to one of the four TMIC mounting holes became covered so we added an access hole to be able to tighten down this bolt as well as provide a NPT fitting to be used with water/methanol injection.

We proceeded with some virtual testing and discovered that the flow was more even and fluid as it moved through the redesigned pipe when compared to the stock pipe. Once we felt good about the revised drawing, we took the CAD model and did a 3D print to check fitment and conduct real world flow testing.

The part fit great and looked great. We were very happy with how the project was turning out, so the next step was to do some flow tests to determine the exact gains that the redesigned part offered.

The outcome:

We were disappointed with the results. The redesigned cold-pipe by itself offered a 15% increase in flow over the stock cold-pipe. When combined with a CorkSport TMIC however, both pipes flowed the same. Since the intercooler’s max flow (still significantly higher than the stock TMIC) was less than either of the cold pipes by themselves, the redesigned cold-pipe and CorkSport TMIC only flowed 0.7 CFM more than the stock cold-pipe and CorkSport TMIC, a negligible amount.

Knowing this, we now had a big problem. Why would anyone want to upgrade this part for a negligible performance improvement? Sure the option to do methanol injection would be great for some but we didn’t think most people would be interested, even at our target of $125.

We hit the forums, Mazdaspeed Forums to be exact, and asked what they thought of the product and if they would still be interested in the product with the minimal gains seen. The general consensus was that although it was a great idea and seemed to have a lot of development and engineering behind it, they didn’t feel like it would be worth the cost or that we would see enough sales to warrant producing the part.

With this feedback, we decided to abandon the project and cut our losses on the development time and money we put into the product. Unfortunately this happens occasionally. We work on a project only to end up killing it before we reach production. It’s just the way development goes sometimes, but each and every time we can take it as a learning experience to further our knowledge about what projects may or may not be worth pursuing in the future.

We want you to feel confident that our products do what we say they will do and though it’s not an easy decision to scrap a product after investing thousands of dollars on development, when the alternative is to release a product that has no performance benefit when our customers are expecting one, the choice is simple, abondon ship.

Andrew-

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CorkSport Product Development Update

We here at CorkSport have been busy working on some new parts for Mazda owners and I’m excited to be able to share some of the features and benefits that you can expect from some of the newest additions to our catalog that we have been busy developing for our customers.

First up we have the CorkSport Mazda 3 and Mazdaspeed 3 Adjustable End Links. These end links are made from 5/8″ hex stock 2011 Aluminum which is stronger than regular 6061. The ultimate tensile strength is actually 10,000 PSI stronger. Compared to the stock end links the CorkSport Mazda Adjustable End Links are much bulkier and stronger, which keeps the link from deforming when subjected to extreme loads. The ball joints used are also more durable than the rod ends normally used in adjustable end links and come with a shield to help keep out the road debris and grit than can increase the wear and tear on the links.

Using adjustable end links will provide increased strength which is important when running a stiffer front sway bar. To those who are worried about corner weighting, adjustable end links allow you to remove any preload from your front sway bar after adjusting each corner’s ride height. Not to mention they also look great!

Also just released are the CorkSport Mazdaspeed Shifter Base Bushings. The aluminum bushings replace the factory rubber bushings. These bushings give your shifter a more solid and crisp feel by taking out any slop from the stock rubber base bushings.

Along with our Shifter Base Bushings, we have also just released a Mazdaspeed Adjustable Short Shift Plate which reduces the throw of your shifter by 20-40%.

The shift plate works by reducing the distance between where the shifter cable mounts on the shift arm to the pivot point. By reducing this distance, the shifter cable doesn’t have to move as far to produce the same movement at the transmission. In the car this produces a much shorter throw, which will reduce your shift times, and in turn will help you reduce your quarter mile times.

The short shift plate also includes a smaller shift weight to replace the stock weight. The stock weight weighs about 14oz and the CorkSport weight weighs about 5.7oz. The lighter weight will reduce the fort required when shifting, which again can decrease your shift times. If you still want to keep your stock weight, good news, the CorkSport shift plate will be compatible with the stock shifter weight as well.

Now some of you may be wondering about the other new parts we have in development, and while I can’t release any details yet on most of them, I can say we have some very exciting new parts coming down the line. Be expecting to hear more about our Catted Downpipe for the Mazdaspeed 3 and our Underhood Lighting, which should be out in a matter of weeks!

I also want to point out the importance of the product submissions we receive from customers. Development of the short shift plate was actually started from a submission we received from customer, Cale DeLeers. We approved this submission in August of this year and were able to get started on it pretty quickly. We would like to thank Cale for his product submission and note that it is because of his product submission that we were able to develop the product to meet the needs of our customers that were not being met by other similar products on the market.

To those of you out there with ideas for your Mazda, don’t be shy. Let us know what you want and we will definitely look into it.

Andrew-

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Product Release! CorkSport Mazdaspeed 3/Mazda 3 Front End Links

CorkSport is pleased to announce the addition of the Mazda 3 and Mazdaspeed 3 Adjustable Front End Links to our growing list of suspension upgrades developed to enhance your Mazda’s performance.

Made to fit OEM and aftermarket front sway bars, the CorkSport Mazda 3 Mazdaspeed 3 Front Adjustable End Links allows customers to tune any sway bar and remove the preload commonly associated with the suspension.

“Adjustable end links will allow you to properly balance and tune your suspension to give you the best setup possible” Said CorkSport Engineer, Andrew Gilbert, “Our end links will reduce link flex and fatigue, increase sway bar effectiveness and allow for corner balancing suspension.”

The CorkSport adjustable front end links come in a black anodized finish and include an etched CorkSport logo for a custom and long lasting finish.

The CorkSport Mazda 3/Mazdaspeed 3 Front End Links can be purchased for the competitive price of $109.00 making this an easy to install and affordable upgrade for your vehicle.

For more information: https://www.corksport.com/corksport-mazdaspeed-3-front-adjustable-swaybar-end-links.html

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CorkSport Customer Collaboration – Camber Plate Development Process

Our customers are our lifeblood. We live by this understanding each and every day and appreciate that you put your trust in CorkSport products and choose CorkSport brand parts for your Mazda performance needs. Proof? Many of you may get a sense of this from the quality of our customer interactions. Hopefully, you find our staff easy to reach, courteous, helpful, and knowledgeable.

From our transparent shipping costs and our dedicated staff and customer service, to our rewards program for our loyal customers, and customer collaboration efforts, we want to demonstrate how grateful we are for your business each and every day.

I’d like to take this post as an opportunity to expand on the customer collaboration concept. We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth revisiting with a fresh example.

We’ve conducted numerous focus groups with our customers. In those groups we’ve discussed how our customers want to be involved in the product development process. Overwhelmingly we’ve been told you want to see the development process. You want to see what’s in the pipeline and have a chance to give feedback on the design. Our best most recent example of our efforts to expand our customer’s role in the product development process is our soon to be released camber plates for Mazdaspeed3.

Our knowledgebase is a repository for all sorts of information. For the camber plate development process, we’ve posted several articles in our knowledgebase. Brief summaries are presented below. The interested reader can view each article for more details.

Article 1:
The idea for camber plates came from two customers, Eric & Todd, who turned in product ideas. Our staff reviewed the merits of their suggestion and decided to pursue it.

Article 2:
Our initial design concept was posted for feedback.

Article 3:
Prototype parts were made from the drawings. Ordinarily we’d make one set for testing. This time, we made several extra sets so that if Todd and Eric wanted to get involved in Beta testing, we were positioned to take advantage of the opportunity. After installation and testing in house, Todd took us up on the offer to test a set of the camber plates.

Both Todd and Eric gave us great feedback and even hit the forums and started a discussion. We learned that many people were apprehensive to cut their strut tower to allow for camber adjustment. From our experience we are comfortable cutting sheet metal on a brand new car, understandably many people are not! We returned to the drawing board with the intention to eliminate that requirement. Success!

Article 4:
The biggest problem we had to resolve at this point was spring interference when using the Mazda Genuine struts. This limits negative camber to around -1.5 degrees. We solved this problem by revising our recently released lowering springs to have a tighter wound coils up front.

In summary, we made these changes to the original design as a result of our collaboration efforts with our customers:
• Recessed design to remove the requirement to enlarge the hole in the strut tower.
• Larger strut bolts to reduce camber variation from removal and reinstallation.
• Longer strut bolts to allow for strut brace installations.
• Custom lowering springs to allow for more than -1.5 degree which is limited by the factory chassis using struts.

We expect to release the camber plates and revised lowering springs in early 2012.

Thank you to everyone for their feedback. Special thanks to Todd and Eric for their participation in the development process.

Rich-

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Featured Car of the Month October 2011 – Will Buck

Former Army Sergeant and 25 year old Iraq War Veteran, Will Buck caught our attention a little while ago when he sent along an impressive graph from a dyno of his 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 that logged 314hp and 349 torque with a stock turbo.

This Speed 3 is his first Mazda, but this Buffalo NY native has been modding cars since he started driving. Even his first Honda Civic ended up with a Zex Nitrous Kit on it.

After blowing up a couple motors on his supercharged Scion TC, Will finally decided it was time for something with a little better performance and reliability and his research led him right to the Mazdaspeed 3.

Since purchasing his car some of the modifications he has added include a CorkSport Power Series Short Ram Intake, CorkSport TMIC, CorkSport Downpipe, and CorkSport Racepipe along with 50/50 E85 and 93 Octane, Autotech HPFP Internals, Forge V2 BPV and JBR EGR Blockoff. He also has a self-tuned Cobb Accessport @23 PSI.

He recently won the highest horsepower stock turbo MS3 in Georgia award, but is ready to upgrade the turbo to a GTX3071 as his next project.

“I live just outside of Fort Benning, GA now and there is not much of a tuning following out here so I drive the two hours to Atlanta monthly to stay involved with fellow NATOR Georgia members,” said Will. “I spend my free time split between working on the car, home improvement, the Army Reserves and I spend a fair amount of time being active on mazdaspeedforums.org”

He is also passing along his love for speed to his two year old daughter who loves riding in the Mazdaspeed and is often egging her dad on by saying “go, go, go, go,go!” If Will’s dyno chart has anything to say about it, his speed 3 doesn’t disappoint when she asks him to floor it!

Gwynne –