We want YOU to help us design the next CorkSport Branded Ride!

As if it wasn’t obvious, we have a plethora of vehicles to work with around here. True to fashion of course, we at CorkSport have gone and done it again: We went and filled some of the last remaining shop space with ANOTHER CAR.

Not just any car. Say “Hello” to our newest addition: 2018 Mazda 3 Hatchback, touring 2.5L SKYACTIVE-G. Equipped with an automatic transmission and some of the nicer creature comforts.

We love the sparkle of the Eternal Blue Mica and of course her 18” gunmetal dancing shoes. However, as with all things good and standard in the world, we couldn’t help but think that the potential for upgrading is endless.

Do we strip it and go full race car? Perhaps something crazy and AWD swap of sorts? Or maybe we take it way out of left field and go rally-style with it?

With the opportunities being endless, it was starting to make our heads hurt, so we decided to take a step back and start with the basics. We asked ourselves:

“How would our average customer who just picked this car up dream of modifying it?”

And that is exactly what we are doing.

If you guys are anything like us, then you have several hobbies that extend beyond just cars. Some of our team’s personal favorite other hobbies include hiking, camping, traveling, water sports, chilling at the beach, and has recently included obstacle course racing. With all these interests taking up different aspects of our time, we would need a ride that can accommodate our lifestyle. While it would be awesome to have a 6-second drag car, we’d probably have to lose some creature comforts or find a pot of gold to cover the cost, and that’s just not what the average Mazda enthusiast is about.

This project, like we said, is for YOU. And if it’s for you, then we need your help in putting it together.

This car, or as we are designating it: “Project CBR” (CorkSport branded ride), will be built by the people for the people.

We are going to take you with us on the full journey of this car; from the basic mods to the full on weekend task. From the daily driver to the long road hauler. From the car wash to the full service details. We are going to show you everything and anything on this car.

And through the whole process, everything is going to be built with your help.

Over the next several months as we put some miles on our test mule, we will want your guys’ feedback.

Do we put springs and shocks on it or full coilovers?
What type of wheels should we get?
Tint the windows, wrap it, get rid of the chrome?
The list goes on!

Every couple of weeks, we will keep you updated on where the car stands and what you think we should do next.

We will create a section on the CorkSport site so you can follow along, ask questions, provide suggestions, and fully immerse yourself into the car. Ever so often, we will also host a poll and you guys will vote on what happens next!

Think reverse sponsored: Instead of CorkSport’s name being the only one on this ride, we will be giving Sponsorship Cred to the Mazda Enthusiasts who give us the ideas for our mods. (first come, first credits).

We’ll put YOUR NAME on the CorkSport Branded Ride.

If you have a Dream Mod, and We pull it off on the CBR, you’ll get the credits… Remember: The CBR is By the People, For the People!

Stay Tuned, we’ll need your feedback soon!

CorkSport

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

May 22, 2014September 13, 2018

What should Sponsorship look Like?

What should sponsorship look like?

We have hundreds of people contact us every year to be sponsored. Some want free parts, some want discounts, some want to test parts, some want to simply represent a company they love, and others simply want the satisfaction of saying, “I’m sponsored!”. What should sponsorship look like though? We have only a handful of sponsored drivers because we believe that sponsorship should be a relationship, not just money thrown at someone. At the same time we have thousands of customers who want to support us, and hundreds of customers that ask for sponsorship. So the real question is how do we provide a sponsorship program that is best for everyone? A program where we can sponsor more people, the right people, AKA the people YOU want sponsored.

Why do we sponsor people?

We sponsor people for several reasons.

We like you: We have so many amazing people in the Mazda community and we want to support the growth of the Mazda modification scene.
When you get support, you give support: It’s a proven fact that when someone tells their friend about a great part, product, service, or event that it can be better marketing than Google ads, billboards, TV commercials or any other form of typical advertising. The best advertising that we can have is simply by providing the BEST customer service, BEST parts, and a great experience for all Mazda owners. One way to do this is too sponsor drivers who can tell you exactly what our parts are like!
Testing: We are always working on new parts for your car and the best parts are the ones that get tested, revised, tested, revised, and tested again. Though we have plenty of cars at our disposal in our shop or personal garages, often the best testing comes from YOU. Plus when you can say “I beta tested this, and that shit WORKS” it lets others know that we aren’t just making stuff up.

How does it Benefit you?

It depends on what you are looking for. As a sponsored driver you might get discounts on parts, recognition in the community, or you might even get to work personally with some of our engineers to develop and give feedback on our latest parts in development. As CorkSport rolls out a new Sponsorship program we want to be able to invite everyone into being a part of a team that can benefit you and us, equally. This means that the more you invest in your car and the Mazda community, the more we invest in you.

How does it benefit us?

This one is more difficult to measure. Sponsorship can often appear to be a one-sided endeavor. In many sponsorship relationships you might get paid with free product, or even cash, to say something like “After every race, I drink a refreshing bottle of Sporty Sport Drink“. Now the statistics on how many customers choose to purchase Sporty Sport Drink because of your sponsorship is a tough measurement. In the same way it’s hard to measure how often someone sees your sweet looking Mazdaspeed 3 with a CorkSport decal on the side and decides to find out what CorkSport is and then buy something. Nonetheless it does happen (we hope) but, there is more to sponsorship than just advertising to make more money.

Sponsorship benefits us because it allows us to be a part of the Mazda community. We don’t always get to be at every Mazda event, we don’t get to talk personally with every Mazda customer, and we don’t even get to respond to every Mazda thread, question or email in our great big world. When we sponsor someone we get to make a connection with you, and then you get to be our ambassador for all those people we can’t personally interact with. In other words, we get to be part of the Mazda community, due to our CorkSport Sponsored Ambassador Team.

The Best Part about Sponsorship:

The best part about sponsorship is the fact that it is a community benefit. Sponsored drivers get cheaper parts, or new unreleased parts, or recognition. Mazda drivers that aren’t sponsored get the extra knowledge and help from the sponsored drivers, and get feedback about parts they don’t have. Finally Corkspot gets the benefit of creating a better Mazda community which is why we started the company in the first place! Because we love Mazdas!

Sponsorship is about sharing OUR love of Mazda with YOUR love of Mazda, and spreading that love beyond where we can reach individually.

Have some ideas for when we roll out our new program? Have you been impacted by one of our sponsored drivers, or someone you think should be sponsored? Have a brilliant plan to benefit the Mazda community? Email Spencer@CorkSport.com your feedback and ideas!

October 28, 2013December 28, 2016

CorkSport Featured Car of the Month – October – Joe Perry

October Featured Car of the Month

Joe Perry and his 2011 Black Mica MazdaSpeed3

Joe found himself at a dealership, looking for a Mustang. As fate would have it though, he got the chance to check out a Mazdaspeed 3 instead and something just clicked. After the test drive, and finding out that the deal was just too good to pass up, he sealed the deal. Having owned a Miata previously, he knew Mazda could build an exciting car, even if it the Speed was a little different. Mostly, Joe just enjoyed the fact that his head didn’t stick above the roof!

With the purchase of his 2011 Black Speed 3 he decided to give modifying a try. Looking for a crisp feel and wanting to remove the excessive engine movement he was experiencing, especially when launching, he purchased the CorkSport Rear Motor Mount Insert. Once installed, the mod bug hit hard. Just check out this list:

Performance mods

-ETS tmic
-Autotech HPFP internals
-SURE intake
-SURE turbo inlet
-Forge V1 bpv
-Ultimate Racing downpipe
–Corksport Racepipe
-Ultimate Racing cat-back exhaust
-Corksport Exhaust Hangars
-Corksport Short Shift Plate
-Corksport Race Rear Motor Mount
-Corksport Oil Catch Can
-Denso ITV22 spark plugs
Wheels & suspension
-10mm spacers
-Continental sport contact DW tires
-Eibach Pro-kit springs
-Koni yellow shocks
-Akebono Euro brake pads
Exterior goodies
-OEM mazda window visors
-20% tint
-Rally Armor mud flaps

Joe’s most frequent passenger is his girlfriend Elizabeth, who may be a little jealous of the attention his Speed 3 gets, but is always up for the “zoom zoom-boost,” as she calls it. “She loves the car, and there are times you’ll hear her say, ‘Just go fast’”.

Joe hasn’t found himself at many Mazda Meets or events, but he’ll regularly troll through the classic car shows and let the guys gawk at his ‘OCD Clean’ ride. “The old guys love it, a big contrast from theirs, but car people appreciate clean, powerful cars”.

You can find Joe and his beauty “cruising the winding back roads of the reservoir; a local spot through the woods with some good twists and turns”, or to and from work as a correctional officer. “Inmates look out the window and take notice of any and all changes I make to the ride, or just listen to the sound of it…” he says with a chuckle.

He loves his Pro Tune from Lex @ Stratified, and looks forward to some Work-Emotion Wheels and a possible upgraded turbo next summer.

This is Joe’s first ‘award’ of any kind, “I love the car and keep it crazy clean, but haven’t really shared it much”. So ladies and gents he’s batting 1.000!

I’m going to end this with my own thoughts here and say:
“Just look at that GRIN!”
Cheers – Kim

September 16, 2013

Representing CorkSport Mazda Performance

Representing CorkSport Mazda Performance.

Since starting here at CorkSport HQ, I find myself searching the lanes of traffic for Mazdas. I can’t deny that it gets my heart pumping a little bit when I see a Speed3, but that’s merely because I have a preference for them and the “zoom-zoom” effect.

What keeps me looking is that I don’t always see Mazdas of what I’ll call the “proper persuasion”. It may just be a Pacific Northwest thing, but there are a lot of sexy performance cars roaming the streets disguised as family vehicles. Now don’t get me wrong, a family car is always necessary, but after seeing what the enthusiasts are capable of, I get a little disappointed when I don’t see a CorkSport branded vehicle behind every Mazda emblem.

Over Labor Day weekend I was driving home from camping and having a conversation with a fellow car enthusiast (he’s into Mitsubishis, yuck) about how often we see cars “repping” their favorite performance brand. He was actually doing a great job of making me defensive, saying that he’d never seen a good looking performance Mazda. He said it was a rare occurrence out here to see a clean/stance one and then for it to also be repping CorkSport, “like seeking unicorn’s”. I was disagreeing with all that I had, and yes I mean that in reference to volume control.

We were in a deep, what I’ll refer to as an, “elevated and passionate” conversation, when low and behold, there in the lane just left of us, was a tiny 6” decal on the back right of a very clean Speed3 (Gen2). A perfectly pitched screech of “TOLD YOU SO” bellowed from my mouth, followed by a quick cell phone pic and a good long laugh at how “I (Kim) am always right, get used to it.”

Since then, we have found and rewarded the owner of this beautiful beast https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151905810739257&set=a.317272679256.181853.126409094256&type=1&theater, but it got a great conversation going in the office of “where is the best spot to place a decal?”

So, this is the question I pose to you, our readers: “Where do you think is the perfect spot to rep your favorite performance brand?” I prefer them to go along with the elegant lines of the car, but others say that having them stand against those brings a slick look as well. What do you think?

Here are some of the pictures that we have seen the in past, please feel free to post yours so we can check it out!

Can’t wait to see what you all show us!

Sincerely yours,

The very passionate and boisterous CorkSport Customer Service Representative,

Kim