Cool Stuff | CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

June 3, 2011September 13, 2018

Twin Turbo Mazda What!?!

That’s right folks, Mazda is going to release a new twin turbo model and it is going to be used in none other than: a diesel Mazda 3!

Before everyone heads out to get the ropes to hang me for luring you into this blog post with the promise of twin turbos, let me explain. Mazda has been working to lower emissions while improving the performance of their motors for both gas and diesel. One such way Mazda has found is to run a really small turbo and a larger turbo in tandem to keep the performance linear in the diesel engines.

Mazda has been down this path before back in the late 80’s and early 90’s with two versions of the rotary engine, the 13B –RE used in the Eunos Cosmo and the 13B-REW used in the FD RX-7. Both 13B engines used a pair of turbos, a primary turbo that would spool until the RPM reached the switch-over point when the secondary turbo would come online to generate an ideal turbo response and wide enough power band for the car. This same feature will be applied with the diesel engine giving you a wider power band to drive with.

Mazda Sky-D Twin Turbos

Mazda has also lowered the compression of the diesel engine allowing the combustion to be more complete and putting less stress on the engine parts. This gives Mazda the ability to use lighter weight smaller parts to gain efficiency and provide better emissions.

The really trick feature Mazda has put on the diesel engine is variable valve timing. This allows the exhaust valves to open slightly after the initial startup to let exhaust gas into the combustion chamber on the intake stroke. The exhaust gas then warms the combustion chamber to help the engine get to operating temperature more quickly thereby reducing the chance of engine misfire.

Mazda has stated that the engine has 20% better fuel economy over the outgoing MZR-CD diesel engines putting it at 48 MPG (the MZR-CD engine gets 40 MPG).

Now the big question is would I own a new Mazda with the new Sky-D engine? With all of the work Mazda has put into the new engine, I look forward to trying one out and will wait to pass judgment.

For more information head to the technical information Mazda has made public on their webpage

– Derrick

May 27, 2011September 13, 2018

787B Race Car Coming Out Of Retirement

In celebration of becoming the first and only Japanese car manufacturer to win the world’s most demanding endurance race, the 24-Hours of Le Mans, Mazda will be demonstrating the winning Mazda 787B, on the Circuit de la Sarthe in La Mans, France on June 11, before the start of the race.

The Mazda 787B was jointly developed by Mazda and MazdaSpeed in 1990 to 1991. The 787 has a chassis designed to meet Group C racing car technical regulations and is powered by a R26B four-rotor naturally aspirated engine that produces 700 horsepower. 1991 was the last year that a rotary-engine car could participate in the 24 Hour of Le Mans.

At the 59th 24 Hours of Le Mans, Mazda was not the favorite to win, but the three 3.5 liter cars that Mazda submitted for the races were given first grid positions despite being the 12th, 17th and 24th fastest qualifiers. On the day before the race, the team manager instructed the drivers to drive as if it were a short sprint race rather than an endurance event, a decision he made based on the reliability the cars demonstrated and the car’s exceptional fuel economy.

At the 22nd hour of the race, #55, an outrageously painted bright orange and green Mazda 787B, took the lead and was the first to cross the finish line, completing 362 laps and covering just over 3,064 miles.

Since 1991, the winning Mazda 787B has primarily been displayed at the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima, Japan. Mazda carefully restored the winning 787B racecar back to driving condition and has tested it using one of Mazda’s in-house top gun drivers.

Mazda’s attendance at the 79th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans also coincides with the 50th anniversary of its development of the rotary engine.

– Gwynne

May 24, 2011May 20, 2011

Reach for the Sky

We have been blogging about the Mazda Sky series of engines over the last year but Mazda had yet to announce any specifics about them in terms of fuel economy, displacement, and size.

1.3 Sky-G Engine

This week Mazda took the wraps of the first production Sky engine which will be available in the Mazda 2/Demio in Japan later this year. The engine will be showcased at the Automotive Engineering Exposition near Tokyo Japan from May 18th-20th.

The first engine will be a 1.3 liter displacement gasoline engine which is rated at 70 miles per gallon. This is from a gasoline engine alone, no expensive hybrid setup. The Toyota Prius for example is rated at 51 mpg for city driving and has to pack around the extra hybrid drivetrain. The Sky-G engine features a 14 to 1 compression engine (the highest compression mass production motor ever manufactured) with a direct injection system. The engine features a whole collection of new designs Mazda engineers have been working on over the last few years.

Despite all of the fuel economy goals and gas saving technologies, the engine still produces a decent amount of power for a 1.3 liter making about 80 hp at 5400 rpm.

Specially Designed Sky Piston

Mazda mentions that the engine is an all new design except for the exhaust manifold. I bet we will see a trick exhaust manifold available soon after the Sky engine gets released to the rest of the planet next year which will help it with emissions in various markets.

There is another recent development which I have not seen any automotive news outlets mention. Two engineers Takashi Youso and Masahisa Yamakawa from Mazda’s powertrain division have been recognized by the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan for an outstanding technical paper they have produced. The paper was on the development of HCCI or Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition which is when fuel and air are well mixed then compressed to auto ignition. You may think big deal, diesel engines do this already. Gasoline is harder to work with when you factor in how it can pre-ignite easier than diesel and the wide variety of fuel grades/blends around the planet. The paper is about gasoline HCCI, which has super low nitrogen oxide and carbon emissions output, and offers improved fuel economy. I can picture a Mazda 2 getting 80mpg+ which would be incredible from an all gas engine. This is a technical paper so the design is not in production but it gives some good insight on how much Mazda is pushing the envelope of the standard gas engine.

– Derrick

May 10, 2011May 6, 2011

Getting the Boot!

I have been competing in the local SCCA autocross season in our Mazda 2 which I have previously written about here. There is no set class that the Mazda 2 fits in listed with the SCCA. I looked to see where the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa, etc were classed but there was no information available. So this left me to classify the car myself.

I ended up choosing the STS category based on several factors. The STS classification is for small cars with engines under 1.9 liters, like the Honda CRX, Honda Del-Sol, Miata, Porsche 914, etc. The 2 fit into the class wonderfully as all the cars in this class handle very well and would provide a perfect challenge for the 2. After the second event I received an email from the local solo chairman that someone had brought up a question about the Mazda 2 competing in the class and he recommended I take it the national technical person. I sent over an email to the technical service specialist, running down the information about the Mazda 2 and what was going on. My reply back from the SCCA was we needed to be in ST instead of STS. The reason being that the Mazda 2 has back seats. Never mind anything technical about the car with power levels, weight, or any factors that actually make a difference. Heck, I could pull the back seats out if they really want it to be a 2 seat car.

The real icing on the cake was in the email I received back I was told there will be a change next year for the classifications for the Mazda 2. The SCCA acknowledges that there is a problem but they are not going to do anything about it this year. I politely replied back to the SCCA asking if there is anything I can do about it and I was told I should go out there and have fun. I hate to be spoil sport but my goal when I go out and compete is to win.

There is an upcoming autocross event soon which we will find out how well the Mazda 2 stacks up against the ST class. This should be interesting as we will be down around 60 wheel hp against several of the Honda Civics which inhabit in the class. I will post up the results after the next event.

–Derrick

March 15, 2011March 11, 2011

What’s a Meebo?

Several months ago we put up an instant chat screen on our web page for people to contact us. If you have not seen it, take a look at the picture below from our main page. The chat is available in all locations of our web page at the bottom left of the screen.

Meebo

If you look at the box and it shows “CorkSport is online” give it a try. There are 3 fields which you can use in Meebo. The top box is the chat history. It shows the conversation between you and CorkSport. The second box is where you enter you text which we receive on our end and is displayed on the chat history box. The last box is where you can enter your name. Meebo automatically assigns a random name but you can change it to something more personal if you like.

Meebo

We have Meebo running during our normal business hours. Please note if you do enter a chat and we are not online we will not receive your message.

The nicest feature of Meebo is the ability for customers to have a conversation with us which can start and stop without a phone call. If you are in a location where a telephone call is not possible but you can access our web page you can ask us questions about our products.

– Derrick