Cool Stuff | CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

May 15, 2013May 16, 2013

Why Durometer Doesn’t Matter

What is durometer and what does it mean? If you know what it is, when does it actually matter? Every day at CorkSport we are asked this question. Many times, we are told that many of you assume that the higher the durometer or something attached to a car, the more noise and vibration will be transmitted into the passenger compartment. This however, is not always the case.

Durometer is the measure of the hardness of a material. The higher the number, the harder the material is. When talking about rubber or polyurethane, you will often hear durometer numbers between 60a and 90a. There are several scales for the measurement of durometer, in the case of bushings, you will almost always hear about the Shore A scale. The letter at the end of the rating will tell you which scale you are rating.

When designing engine mounts or suspension pieces, the durometer can be very important, but the shape and how the piece is used can be even more important. The overall durometer number will give you the first idea of how much vibration the mount or bushing might transmit, but this can easily feel different depending on the surface area used.

If you have an engine mount that has to fit a certain area and you decide to design it with a very small bushing, or a bushing that has to do more than just isolate the two parts, you can end up transmitting a lot more vibration. If you compare a 1” diameter bushing and a 2” diameter bushing you don’t end up with double the amount of surface area, you actually increase the surface area by 4 times! That isn’t the only way bushings work though. Depending on the direction of the force, you could use a bushing much smaller and obtain a much better isolation than one with a bigger available surface area subjected to more force. In many cases, only the durometer of the bushing is taken into consideration when many mounts are designed; not how the bushing is used, its size or the forces applied to it.

Recently I was asked by Kevin Pugh (the owner of MazdaSpeed Forum) the durometer of a mount we released. I replied to him; “it doesn’t really matter, but I will tell you anyway”. We had a good laugh and talked about many of these points; and because of that conversation this blog post was born. Much like many of the topics on the CorkSport blog, we recognize the market and what is important to you. This information is as important to you as it is to us, and whether you buy our entire catalog or just read our blog and stay stock, we always want to be of service to the Mazda community that we have been dedicated to since 1998.

Cheers,

Joel

May 9, 2013

CorkSport invades Orange County Choppers!!!

This weekend Derrick and I left the eerily sunny northwest on a red-eye flight and touched down to a sunny Newark (seriously, what are the odds?)
After collecting our Dodge Avenger from Enterprise we set off for Newburgh New York. A short 70 miles and many conversations about how Chrysler is still in business we arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn which thankfully is within stumbling distance of OCC.

A quick shower and a change of clothes later, we crossed the parking lot only to be met by some of the finest Mazdas in the area along with some of the finest tuners and tuning companies for the Mazda community. We met up with a few of our sponsored drivers (Steve Kritzberg and Matt Kellogg) and then touched base with the leader of the event, Storm Sasaki and set out to talk to some fine folks.

As you can see by the pictures, OCC featured almost every kind of Mazda you could imagine and really brought out a lot of cars. Obviously with the popularity of the Mazdaspeed 3 in recent years, that car was VERY well represented. The atmosphere at OCC is very laid back, with everyone anxious to see what the next trends are and hoping to meet some of the people they have befriended on the forums in real life. I personally was able to finally put some faces to names of some very incredible people and felt very lucky to encounter a few other that I didn’t know but now am proud to have spoken with.

After a short lunch at the OCC cafe (which has a surprisingly good Rueben sandwich) we were back out into the sun. With over 200 cars on hand, there was quite a bit to keep any Mazda fan busy.

After the raffle (where lucky contestants won everything from CorkSport gift certificates to a new set of tires from Continental) with the sun sinking low into the sky we headed to a restaurant and spent a good few hours having a great time with many other Mazdaheads. The rest of the night went very quickly with a parking lot roundtable discussion and somehow ended with us partying with a group of newlyweds at the Hilton.

The next day we hit the road to head to the famous Long Island (pronounced Lon Guyland) to hang out with Steve and Matt. Steve showed us the amazing repairs he had done to his house after hurricane Sandy and then showed us the destruction to the famous boardwalk that has yet to be repaired. It was truly amazing what that storm did to the town, but even more amazing was the way the town pulled itself back up and seemed to be just as New York as it had ever been!

Finally, before we headed back to the airport, no trip to New York is complete without a visit to a Kosher deli. Luckily, Steve knew just the place. The Lido Kosher Deli left Derrick and me speechless. The pickles, the slaw, the hot pastrami on rye… If you’re ever looking for a discount on CorkSport gear, you can get both of us to do just about anything to taste that food again.

It was with heavy hearts (and bloated stomachs) we got on our plane knowing that this was the last OCC meet and that we had to leave New York behind, but Storm is already planning the next meet and you can bet your short ram intake that we will be there! Thanks again to everyone who made this possible and everyone who came out… and anyone who wants to overnight us some Pastrami…

Cheers,

Joel

May 6, 2013May 6, 2013

CorkSport B-Spec World Domination!!!

Last weekend CorkSport headed to the second SCCA majors event of the season held at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in California. A “short” 15 hour drive and we arrived in sunny California with a full crew and a driver hopped up on Red Bull ready to go.

The competition for the weekend was stiff as Honda brought out a few factory backed B-Spec Fits to be driven by workers in the racing program, along with some T4 Civics to see how well they would do in the heat of battle. Our driver and fearless race leader Derrick had never driven at Buttonwillow and the track configuration did not favor the Mazda 2 which is down almost 15hp to the Fit’s; with that in mind, practice was of the utmost importance.

As you can see from the map, there are a few long straights that are an advantage for the Fit’s and the fastest portion of the track is Riverside which is taken flat out (if you have the guts).

On Saturday there was a practice session which Derrick took advantage of to learn the track and prepare for qualifying just a few short hours later. Right off the bat Derrick was laughing like a madman through the radio after spinning the car coming over Phil hill, which he seemed to think was hilarious. I suppose the thought of being able to actually spin a 100hp car on racing slicks is pretty impressive. After settling down he managed to set one of the fastest practice laps of the day.

After a quick inspection of the car we were back out on the track for qualifying. B-Spec cars are usually the slowest group of cars on the track and Derrick usually stays towards the back of the pack in qualifying so he can get a clean lap without traffic. Derrick used this approach to get a decent lap and was able to qualify in 2nd between two Fit’s.

After the green flag waved, Derrick was able to hold his position despite the power of the Fit behind him and challenged the faster Fit for the lead. With just one lap to go the CorkSport Mazda 2 B-spec car was reeling in the more powerful Fit and got within 3-4 car lengths before traffic got in the way. In the end, Derrick had to settle for 2nd place but learned Buttonwillow and a little bit more about the CorkSport Mazda 2 B-Spec car. Derrick is currently 4th in the standings for the entire west coast and we look forward to more quality finishes and more trophies in his office for us to shoot spitballs at.

April 23, 2013

Help CorkSport help you!!!

Here at CorkSport we know you, the customer, are what really drives our business. We don’t just build parts we think you need, we build parts YOU ask for. We understand Mazdas and we love to innovate, but some of the best product ideas we’ve ever had, have come from our customers. We’ve gone to great lengths to make sure we stay involved with you and have a genuine interest in the parts that you want. We’ve set up a link on our website to help make it easier to get your great ideas to our great engineers. If you go to our site and scroll down to where it says “Collaboration” underneath it is a link that says “Request a Product”

We’ve worked hard to make sure we provide exciting products that live up to your expectations and who better to tell us what’s needed then the very people who get excited about it? In the past we’ve worked with our customers to decide everything from the colors we offer for our upcoming brake caliper kits to sending out test parts to customers with high horsepower to try and see if they can expose any weaknesses that we may not have seen.

As we ramp up for the race season we want to make sure your voice is heard and you get the best from us. Please feel free to add your suggestions online, email us or even pick up the phone and let us know what you think. We can’t wait to see what amazing things we can do together with you this year!

March 21, 2013March 21, 2013

CorkSport Prepares for Battle… Again

So after a long 5 month break it is time to get the CorkSport Mazda 2 and the driver prepped for track abuse again for the 2013 season.

For the Mazda 2 it is pretty easy to take care of being it is a relatively stock car still. Going over the car to check out the bushings, tire rod ends, and the whole chassis to make sure nothing is in need of replacement turned up zero items this year. There are only a few non stock components which we gave an extra once over to make sure they are up to spec as well. The brakes got a really close inspection being that take a huge amount of abuse on the track. The stock rotors and CorkSport pads are still in good shape so only a brake bleed was on the menu for work. With the car getting a clean bill of health it is time to move on to other things.

The next item on the list is to get the Mazda 2 through its annual tech inspection with the SCCA. The inspection covers the safety gear of the car and the driver to make sure nothing has expired in the off season. With our car being built last year the seat, harnesses, and other safety gear in the car passed the inspection with flying colors. They also check the drivers helmet, HANS (head and neck) device and drivers suit to make sure they are suitable.

During the off season our Mazda 2 has been a test mule for several parts which resulted in the suspension being removed from the car and re-installed several times. This has left the suspension out of spec for road racing which required a re-alignment. Thanks to a lifetime alignment at the local Firestone we had everything dialed back it to what we wanted with the -1.5 degrees of front camber and correct toe settings.

One last thing which we needed to do was go over the rule book to make sure there were no surprises for the new year which I did not find.

In the title I mentioned prepping the driver for the new year. Racing is a demanding sport and there wasn’t a trip out on the track where I didn’t come into the pits sweating. Being in good shape requires some out of the car effort which I put in over the off season. Starting in November at roughly 185 lbs I started training daily with cardio to do two things. First was to get my heart into great shape and second was to assist in weight loss. Over the past 3 months I have dropped to a low weight of 158lbs and lowered my body fat to roughly 12.5%. With the cardio work along with other training and change of diet I am in the best shape I have ever been in my life to attack the next season of racing.
We will see how the prep for the car and the driver pays off during the next season of racing. We will be posting updates as the season progresses.

-Derrick