corksport | CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

July 29, 2015

5 Mazda Owners You Should Be Following on Instagram

Who doesn’t love an awesome shot of a Mazdaspeed, rolling through lush green highways? How about a whole stockpile of those shots, new angles and stances every week?

A lot of us drive beautiful Mazdas, but only a few of us have the photographic gift (or photographer friends) to showcase them as they deserve. For the rest of us, we can just enjoy the sights on Instagram, which has tons and tons of Mazda accounts we love.

We showcase owners and their pics every day with a #CorkSport Pic of the Day, so be sure to use that hashtag on your best shots. Sometimes, though, we need to point you toward a whole account, like these 5 Mazda owners you should be following on Instagram.

1. Gabriel Manzanera

He swaps out his wheels sometimes to keep things fresh. But really, Gabriel’s ride always looks fresh:

2. Marty Gro

Does it cleaner than this? Bonus: Marty takes some great pics of his dog too.

3. Nick Pereira

If you’re ever in the mood for just a glimpse of a Mazda, Nick finds the best angles of his Mazda 3, showcasing just how good every part of the car looks. (Don’t worry: He takes some killer full body pics too.)

4. Kyle Cross

You’ll see more than just Mazdas on Kyle’s professional photography account, but we don’t mind when every shot looks so damn great.

5. Charles Villeneuve

Hailing from Canada, Charles is serious about mods—and takes some seriously great shots of his 2010 Mazdaspeed 3.

Who else, guys? Give us a follow at @CorkSport and direct us to some other great Mazda owners on Instagram.

Cheers,

CorkSport

July 28, 2015July 31, 2015

NATOR OR BBQ and Dyno Day

As some of you may know already, CorkSport HQ made the move to a much larger and more functional building in January 2014. I think we can all agree that moving sucks and basically consumes your life for at least the month before and after the actual move. Well, I’m here to tell you it’s a hundred times worse when you are trying to move a business while still “keeping the doors open”. In the chaos of moving and getting the new location setup just right it’s easy to forget about the little yet important activities. So what better way to get back in the groove than a BBQ and Dyno Day to support the local community!

July 18th was the big day with 15 cars scheduled to get on the dyno, and another 35-45 cars planning to show up to watch the numbers! With everything set up and the burgers and dogs grilling away, people started to roll in by 12:30pm. The first car got on the dyno and the show began.

First, a bit about our dyno; it’s nicknamed “The Heartbreaker,” and oh so many hearts has it broken. The Tq/Hp curves look good, but it just reads low numbers. For example, a stock Mazdaspeed3 puts down a sad 190whp. Anyway, amongst the 15 Speed3s that planned to hit the dyno the mods varied from nearly stock to big turbo builds with lots of meth. There were quite a few Speeds in the 200-250whp range with a nice assortment of bolt-ons, a couple cars running a BNR or CS turbo in the 295-320whp range and then there is Justin England: a local out of Washington rocking a built block, GTX3071r at 34psi and tons of meth. He put down a very respectable 400wHp/365wTq on the heartbreaker dyno.

Just to give you another reference point, we threw a 07’ Corvette on the dyno that also has high flow cylinder heads, intake & exhaust manifold, performance camshaft, and full exhaust system. He put down a mere 420wHp/380wTq…yup. Anyways, enough about our depressing dyno!

Along with the constant roar of WOT pulls there was plenty of food and drinks and even a raffle thanks to a handful of sponsors: Tuned by Nishan, Justin at Freektune, Damond Motorsports, James Barone Racing, and CorkSport.

Check out the images below!

Yes, that’s a pink Miata with a V8 that’s a daily driver drift car…it’s basically badass.

All-in-all it was great day! We had a blast, put down some numbers, and stuffed our bellies. What more can you ask for?! Big thanks to all the NATOR OR members and CS employees that made this day possible and to the sponsors that donated items for the raffle! This is what makes the Mazda community so great!

Cheers,

Barett

July 24, 2015

The Best West Coast Road Trips for You and Your Mazdaspeed

Last month, when The Smoking Tire featured our turbocharger in a beta tester’s Mazdaspeed 6, we loved watching how the car handled switchbacks as much as we loved hearing the turbo purr every few seconds.

It got us thinking, What are the best West Coast road trips to take a Mazdaspeed?

That isn’t the most objective of questions, but all the same we wanted to share a list of some of the spots we found—as well as why we love them. Tell us what you think, and what we missed.

California’s Pacific Coast Highway

Did we have a choice to list anything else first? These 123 miles of highway may be the most iconic in the whole country, much less the West Coast. If you like curves and the thrill of driving right up against a cliff face, you can’t do much better than taking your Mazdaspeed here. It should take about 5 hours at a leisurely pace, but you can probably cut that down to 3.5, right?

The Oregon Painted Hills

Called one of the 7 Wonders of Oregon, the Painted Hills in Eastern Oregon make for a breathtaking destination. They also offer some great vistas and stops along the way. There are rivers, fossil fields, and plenty of little towns to stop and grab a bite, as well as Mount Hood National Forest if you’re coming from the West, which always makes for gorgeous driving.

The Olympic Peninsula of Washington

There’s still no road that traverses the interior of the Olympic mountains, but that’s okay: Just driving on the loop around them on highway 101 gives you a thousand beautiful views. Most people only ever see one angle of the Olympics, from Seattle, so take a road trip in your Mazdaspeed to gain an experience few people ever do.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska

No, we didn’t forget about our friends up north. This drive should be on every nature lover’s bucket list, though you may not be able to cross it off till you retire or earn a long sabbatical if you plan to take your own Mazdaspeed. The whole route, Anchorage to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, takes you along Alaska 1 (Glenn Highway), Alaska 10 (Edgerton Highway), and McCarthy Road, which of course doesn’t include the trek up through Canada. While we’d love to see some #CorkSport shots on this drive, be careful about driving your baby all the way. Once you get to Wrangell-St. Elias, you face a 59-mile gravel road to reach the heart of the park.

Have fun, wherever you choose to drive.

Cheers,

Corksport

June 30, 2015August 3, 2023

We Need Your Feedback on Our Mazdaspeed Intake Manifold

Guys, we want your feedback on a project we’ve been working on for the past year.

We’ve shown glimpses of our Mazdaspeed intake manifold from time to time, including the one below when we had it installed on Barett’s Mazdaspeed 3, which popped up on our Facebook page—on April Fool’s—while it was being tested.

This manifold is designed to be a bolt-in. It’ll work with the stock throttle body, stock intercooler, stock you-name-it. This means if you’ve upgraded to a front mount intercooler, it’ll also work as it keeps the OEM throttle body location.

We’ve been through a few iterations of the intake manifold, and below is a picture of the latest version. We’ve changed several things in the design from the last test version, including individual ports for the runners to install meth injection.

In our testing, we’ve found spool to be 200 rpm sooner with the manifold installed. This has been shown on a 1st gen Mazdaspeed 3 equipped with the CorkSport turbocharger and a 2nd gen Mazdaspeed 3 with a GT35r installed.

We also had a peak increase in power of 17 horsepower at the wheels on the 1st gen Mazdaspeed 3 in back to back testing with the manifold.

So. This is where you the Mazdaspeed owner comes into play. We want to know: Would you buy this if we made it? Tell us your thoughts, and if you are interested, shoot us an email so we can keep you updated.

Cheers,

CorkSport

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June 26, 2015September 13, 2018

Flashback Friday: 6 Hilariously Classic Mazda Models

We can’t wait for our new Mazda MX-5. Every time more rumors surface about the next Mazdaspeed, all of us at CorkSport can hardly contain our excitement. Still: We appreciate nostalgia, and for all the performance updates that Mazda has made over the years, it’s still fun to reminisce on their past accomplishments.

For a small player in the industry, Mazda has released some incredible cars over the years. Some have evolved into the models we mod out today; some disappeared like dinosaurs. They’re gone, but not quite forgotten, at least not by true Mazda heads. These are six of our favorite Mazda models from the past.

1. The Mazda Mazdago

First vehicle manufactured by Mazda — Mazda Philippines

Is it a motorcycle? Or an ATV? Or a truck? Technically, the Mazdago was the first “autorickshaw,” but we remember it more as the first vehicle manufactured by Mazda.

2. The Mazda Savanna RX-3

Long live the rotary, right? We can’t wait for the new one, whenever that will be, but we love any shot from the rotary family. Given the Savanna’s huge success in the 70s, it won’t ever be forgotten, but it’s sadly rare to see one of these morsels on the road today.

3. The Mazda Titan

Not to be confused with the Nissan truck, this commercial behemoth actually lives up to its name. The boxy Mazda Titan is still around, and still not the prettiest truck on the road.

4. The Mazda Bongo

Technically, these sometimes trucks, sometimes vans remain in production—at least for a little while longer. It’s the photos of the first models, though, like the first gen pictured above, that catch our eye. The Mazda Bongo has never been a sleek van, but that’s OK when their main job is to be functional.

5. The Mazda REPU

This was not a popular truck. Known for guzzling gas, its appearance right before the 1970s gas crisis might have sealed its fate. The Mazda REPU was a lot faster than its competition, though, and we kind of love that it had a rotary engine.

6. The Mazda MX-3

The Mazda MX-3 died out the same year CorkSport was born, and we remember it for the performance modifications. The MX-3 was basically made for Mazda performance enhancement. If you see one on the road today, chances are someone’s been under the hood, installing a lot of upgrades.

Did we miss any? (Rhetorical question, people. Mazda has made a lot of cars.)

Cheers,

CorkSport