Cool Stuff | CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

March 8, 2011December 18, 2017

Flo-Rida!

The SFLA Mazda Crew hosted their second Epic Florida Meet at Lou Bachrodt Mazda on Feb 21st and CorkSport was invited to attend. Agreeing to attend and getting to the event which was 3230 miles away made for some tough choices for us. We decided to forego bringing a booth and parts show up with a backpack full of t-shirts, can koozies, and the new CorkSport license plate frames to hand out.

Lou Bachrodt Mazda is located in Coconut Creek which is about 45 minutes north of Miami Florida. The weather for the event was beautiful, 80 degrees with a light breeze all day. Compared to Vancouver, WA which was 45 degrees and cloudy, it was a huge difference for winter weather.

RX-7s

160 Mazdas showed up to the event and they ranged from a beautiful 1971 RX-2 to a 3 Rotor 1000+ Hp RX-8. The RX-8 was a beast with a turbo the size of my head.

RX-2

RX-8

There was a portable dyno on hand for the day but it suffered a failure which kept anyone from getting pulls completed. The failure occurred when the first car was on the first power run.

There was a great turnout of Mazdaspeed 3s, both 1st and 2nd gens. There were several standouts I saw at the show for both generations.

A visit from the Red Bull girls kept everyone going all day long. The aftermath at one of the garbage cans shows the carnage of drinks consumed.

I would like to give a big thanks to the SFLA Mazda Crew for organizing the Epic Meet and Lou Bachrodt Mazda for hosting the event. For more pictures of the event check out our CorkSport Facebook Page.

Hosting a Mazda enthusiast event this year? Contact us and we might just show up.

– Derrick

February 22, 2011February 18, 2011

Smiling 3 Goes “Under the Knife” to Come Out Not Quite As Happy

Debuting at the Canadian International Auto Show this weekend, the 2012 Mazda 3 received numerous changes from its predecessor. The most visually obvious change is the new front bumper. Mazda went from full grin, to a more laid-back smirk along with changing up the fog light bezels to flow with the new grill. The change is not a drastic one, but may help convince on the fence buyers who were not in love with the happy face of the 2010-11 3’s. The rear end also received some slight lipo in the form of a slightly redesigned bumper and some new taillights. Mazda will also be offering new designs for the 16 and 17 inch rim options (One option shown below).

The 3 will also get a slight brow lift in the form of some redesigned headlights. The most obvious change being that they will no longer have the “arrow” on the inside of the projector housing.

The biggest change, in my opinion, is not something that can be easily seen from afar. The 2012 Mazda 3 will receive a heart transplant in the form of the all new Mazda engine with Skyactiv technology. The engine features a low-friction block with an ultra high compression ratio of 14.0/1. It can also recirculates exhaust gases back into the engine for decreased emissions. Future plans for this engine include idle-stop and regenerative braking, with the possibility of a hybrid in the works. Displacement, fuel efficiency, power and torque numbers have yet to be released.

As an engineer at CorkSport, I am excited to see the final production 2012 Mazda 3 in person and hopefully get some great new products released for it as well.

– Jake

February 17, 2011September 13, 2018

CorkSport at the Portland Auto Show

Oh how I love an auto show, a whole building filled with new cars and the and new car smell. Multiple manufacturers gathered in one building to show me the best of their new line up. Concept cars, eco cars, Italian cars, it’s the best. This years Portland Auto show was even better than years past. Mazda’s booth is built for fun, and to make it memorable they incorporated an alternative gaming station, STAR Mazda racecars, a spec Miata, and us, CorkSport.

Mazda North America first contacted us several weeks before the show about joining them at the Portland Auto Show with our Mazda 2. A few days later the MazdaSpeed 3 was added to the lineup. Then the fun began: prep-work.

Anyone who has ever entered their car in a show of any kind will totally understand that the prep-work is really hours of cleaning and scrubbing followed by tons of polishing and buffing. It’s standing outside in the cold January weather washing cars, scrubbing tires and trying to dry the car while you still have a little feeling left in your fingers. It’s cursing whoever drove the car last and didn’t clean-up right, but in the end its just so worth it because the cars end up looking beautiful.

All the cleaning and prep aside, there is always a little disaster that drops in at the last minute. We like to refer to these disasters as “team builders”, because it takes the team to fix the disaster before it turns into a gulf spill that spews for months on end with no resolution. Our little disaster was the hood on the 2. About a month before the show the 2 took a direct hit from a piece of tire that was kicked-up by an SUV in front of us on our way to a MazdasNW meet. No one was injured but the 2’s window and hood were done. Fast forward to the auto show, window was fixed weeks ago, but we weren’t able to get a hood that wasn’t damaged in transit until just before the show. After much debate and several vinyl peel-offs we finally struck gold with simplicity. We cleaned the hood, polished it up and dropped a CorkSport logo across the top of the hood at an angle. It turned out great and the disaster was capped.

After all was said and done, the cars got dropped off on time and look great in the Mazda booth. Thanks again to Mazda North America for the invite, we really enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of the show.

– Kelly

February 8, 2011September 13, 2018

Sno-Drift 2011

I had a chance to attend the aptly named Sno-Drift Rally the on Jan 28th and 29th in Michigan. Man it was cold too with the high temperature of 16 degrees. The rally is run around (and in) Lewiston and Atlanta Michigan which is in the middle of nowhere (see map below for the middle of nowhere)

I attended the event as a guest of Thayer Mazda who is a sponsor of the event. Thayer Mazda supplied the green light car for the for Rally America to use. Thayer took a 2011 Mazdaspeed 3 which is sponsored by CorkSport and Mazda and built it from the ground up.

The Mazdaspeed 3 is equipped with the CorkSport Mazdaspeed 3 SRI, CorkSport SRI Airbox w/ Carbon Lid, CorkSport 80mm Catback Exhaust, CorkSport Skid Plate, CorkSport Urethane Exhaust Hangars, and CorkSport Motor Mount Inserts.

There were two Mazdas competing in the Sno-Drift Rally, a 2008 Mazdaspeed 3 driven by Wyatt Knox and a 1988 323GTX driven by Erik Zenz. The Mazdaspeed 3 was on pace the first day to challenge for the 2wd G5 title but a flat tire and some difficulty with snow and ice changing the tire held them up. On Saturday Wyatt fought back to get to 4th place in 2wd and 18th overall. Not too bad when there were 45 cars that started the event and a good half of them were 4wd models.

Photo credit Lee Sam

At the super special stage a lucky 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 owner got a chance to take his car out on the course for a quick lap after the rally cars had finished up.

The super special spectators got a special treat with a guest appearance of the “Stig” who was accompanied by an attractive (freezing) lady.

I would like to give a big thanks to Thayer Mazda for bringing a massive tent with power to the super special stage. They had heaters, a DJ, two couches, two big screen TVs, and a Mazda 2 parked inside the tent. Everyone was welcome to warm up in the tent and enjoy the extra comforts provided.

The rally was a great event to attend. If you are anywhere near the Sno-Drift Rally next year I recommend attending. Just make sure you bring some warm clothes.

– Derrick

February 4, 2011September 13, 2018

CorkSport Top Mount Intercooler and Beyond

In following one of our ideals that our customers are the best source for new product ideas, we have been developing a Top Mount Intercooler (TMIC) for the 2.3L MZR engine. The original idea came from a thread on Mazdas247 started by azmavhockey3. The thread was started way back in August and was specifically put up to not only show us (CorkSport) that there was interest in this product, but also to get other users to input ideas and characteristics that they would like to see in a TMIC.

After getting feedback from numerous forum users we tested several designs of TMIC’s to see what would fit best with what the customer wants to see in a TMIC. The picture below shows one of our later iterations in the design and testing process.

After testing airflow, temperature, pressure, and heat soak characteristics of the above design as well as the stock design, we modified our design slightly and came up with our final version of the CorkSport TMIC. We will have a full write up on the performance and design characteristics of the TMIC posted before we release the part in late March.

Getting back to my reason for writing this: the origin of the idea. We recently revised our policies here so that when you submit a product idea through our website, we will periodically update you on the progress of your idea. If your idea is not right for us at the current time, we will inform you that your product idea submission is no longer being considered. If your product idea submission makes it to production, we will offer you the chance to test the beta version of the part (assuming both parties agree to the terms). This gives you the ability to not only say you came up with the idea, but also get the product before anyone else has the chance to buy one.

In the case of the TMIC, azmavhockey3 will be getting the final version of the TMIC a full month before anyone else because of his idea.

If you have an idea on how to improve this process or the product idea submission process, feel free to email me.

– Jake