Lowering Springs | CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

December 7, 2022December 7, 2022

Not-So-Low Lowering Springs For The Gen4 Mazda 3 Turbo

Since releasing our original turbo springs for the Mazda 3, we have noticed that some people would like lowering springs for their Mazda 3 Turbo that offer a milder drop in ride height, but still provide the same great handling characteristics as the originals. This is the reason behind the new CS lowering springs for the turbo Mazda 3; the “Not-So-Low” springs. The drop in ride height has been reduced 0.5 inches in the front and 0.3in in the rear and offers another option for those wanting lowering springs for their Turbo Mazda 3. Keep on reading to get a look at the new CS lowering springs in action.

Turbo Lowering springs on a 2021 Mazda 3 Turbo in gray

First let’s go over the main difference between the new CS lowering springs and the original ones. Ride height is increased 0.5 inches over the previous lowering springs in the front and 0.3 inches in the rear which brings the total drop to 1.0 inch in the front and 1.5 inches in the rear for hatchback models. The slightly heavier sedan nets a total drop of 1.0 inch front and 1.6 inches in the rear. The sedan sits just slightly lower in the rear because of the extra weight, but also sits level and looks fantastic! The milder drop in ride height still looks low enough to give your Mazda an aggressive stance, b

Now onto the benefits of the CS lowering springs that you can feel. The improvement in handling that you get from the CS lowering springs really helps bring some much needed sharpness to the Mazda 3 Turbo. Lowering the height of the car also results in the center of gravity being lower, which helps reduce the amount of body roll felt while driving. Also in conjunction with this, is the increased spring rates, which also play a major part in reducing body roll while cornering. This gives you more confidence while driving at the limit. We have also adjusted the rear spring rates to help reduce understeer when pushing your car to the edge and helps give it more neutral handling characteristics.

Red Mazda 3 with the Not So Low Lowering Springs

For the new CS lowering springs we have retained the proven spring rates from the original lowering spring kit. This results in a front spring rate of 3.4K while the rear has a spring rate of 5.9K. This gives you a great balance of still being able to enjoy daily driving while also giving you a sportier feel when hitting the backroads. The Turbo Mazda 3 also features stiffer dampers that control the extra weight added by the turbo better so the ride is smooth and not bouncy.

Single side view of black not so low lowering springs

These springs also feature the same simple installation of the original kit and only require modification to the factory bump stops so that proper suspension travel is retained at the lower ride height. The springs are made with high tensile strength spring steel to ensure that they perform consistently and will not settle over time. The springs are then powdercoated black to provide a durable finish and protect against corrosion. They also feature spring silencers to prevent any additional noise during suspension travel.

Back side of 2021 Mazda 3 Turbo with Lowering Springs

Well that covers the major details of the new CS lowering springs for the Mazda 3 turbo. Head over to the product listing for more pictures and give us a call if you have any questions on the lowering springs.

P.S. The car in the above images is riding on Advan GT wheels in 19×8.5 +38 size, wrapped in Kumho 235/35 R19 summer tires.

P.S. – We hope are as happy as Aaron Maves with his new springs!

CorkSport sponsored drive Aaron Maves with Mazda 3 Turbo installed Lowering springs

January 13, 2022October 31, 2022

Mazdaspeed 3 Lowering Springs – V2.0

CorkSport is proud to announce the new and improved Version 2.0 Lowering Springs for the 2007 – 2013 Mazdaspeed 3. While the changes are subtle, it never hurts to go back and refine a product that is so well loved by the community

When designing performance lowering springs we want to find the right balance in performance, comfort, and style. When done right performance springs can make a huge improvement in the vehicle’s overall driving experience. That is our goal at CorkSport HQ.

The CorkSport V2.0 springs are very similar to the V1.0 with a ride height drop of approximately 1.1” front and 1.2” rear. This is a fairly aggressive drop, but does cooperate with the stock struts after a bit of bump stop trimming. That is all clearly laid out step-by-step in the included installation instructions.

Now ride height isn’t everything. While it looks great, it also needs to perform great. The CorkSport Sport Springs have specific spring rates so that they perform and feel great for the spirited and daily driven Mazdaspeed 3.

Up front the spring rate is a linear 3.5K and the rear is a linear 4.5K. We specifically design the springs with a higher rear spring rate to help the vehicle understeer vs oversteer characteristics and maintain a proper suspension frequency so your Speed feel solid and planted through the curves and over road imperfections.

Overall, the car is going to feel more lively and connected to the road, giving you more feedback and control to enjoy your Mazdaspeed 3.

You probably also notice a new color! Yes, our new V2.0 are now blue via a durable and corrosion resistant powder coat finish.

Thanks for checking out the new CorkSport Lowering Springs for the Mazdaspeed 3. If you have any questions you connect with us via Facebook, Email or give us a call; we’d love to help.

April 25, 2019August 17, 2023

Mazda 6 Turbo Lowering Springs Release!

We at CorkSport are happy to introduce the Sport Lowering Springs for 2018+ Mazda 6 equipped with the 2.5L turbocharged engine. In our last post, we talked about the height, handling, and quality of our new springs. If you haven’t seen it, check it out HERE. Today we’ll cover how we tested the ride quality and go a step further to talk about damping and natural frequency. I’m going to warn you now; this gets a little bit complicated, but we’re happy to answer any questions you may have.

Spring Damping

Let’s start with a basic example–your car hits a bump that compresses the spring. It “springs” back to its normal length. In a perfect world with no friction or damping, the springs in your suspension would keep bouncing up and down forever, this is called oscillation. Add back in dampening and friction, and the spring will settle out to its normal length pretty quickly. How different strengths of damping affect the “oscillation” can be seen in the graph below.

The car has hit the bump at the bottom left of the graph. As time goes by, you can see the spring expand and compress, and so on. The Greek letter is not important but what is important is the numbers. When it is 0 (black line) the spring compresses and expands over and over to the same height. As the number increases, you can see that the spring returns to its normal length faster until it gets too large and overpowers the spring (dark blue line). For a car, the 0.4 to 1 range is ideal as there is minimal “bouncing” without having too high of damping.

What does all this mean though? Let’s say from the factory the car is in the 0.7 range (orange line). If we went to a drastically stiffer spring but kept the OEM dampers, we may end up in the 0.2 range (light blue line), which would be uncomfortable due to all the bouncing every time you hit a bump. The CorkSport front and rear spring rates chosen are small enough of a change to fit well with the OEM damping, ensuring no bouncing.

Stock 2018 Mazda 6 and CorkSport Modified Mazda 6 — Stock height vs. CorkSport Springs

Natural Frequency Analysis

To go along with this, we did some natural frequency analysis. Natural frequency simplified is how quickly the suspension responds to a bump. The higher the natural frequency, the harsher the ride in a car is. Most “regular” production cars sit in a 1.0-1.6 Hertz (Hz) range for a comfortable ride. Sports cars are usually in the 1.6-2.3Hz range. Full race cars are usually 2.3-3.0 or even higher. An average person will start thinking a ride is stiff/harsh at around 2.0-2.2Hz. Using a special app that ties into the accelerometers of a cell phone we can approximately measure the frequency of a specific suspension setup. With stock suspension on the Mazda 6 2.5T, this yielded ~1.4Hz front and ~1.7Hz rear.

With a stiffer spring, these frequencies will increase, but we wanted to be sure to only increase them slightly, to not severely affect comfort. We went through a few different combinations to get our ideal result. Our final setup ended up at ~1.5Hz front and ~1.85Hz rear. This is enough to notice the suspension feels “sportier” without riding harshly.

2018+ Mazda 6 Roller Shot with lowering springs

There is one other big thing to highlight with frequency. Notice that both the OEM and CorkSport lowering springs have a higher rear natural frequency than front. If your natural frequency front to back is close to equal, the car has a tendency to “pitch” front to back over bumps. Since your rear tires hit the bump slightly later than the fronts, to have a comfortable ride the rear suspension has to “catch up” to the fronts to prevent this pitching back and forth. If a frequency is too much higher in the rear, it can be too fast for the fronts and cause the same pitching issue.

Natural frequency was always on our minds when designing the CS springs and we tested a bunch of different combinations to determine the optimum balance of ride and handling.

That about does it for the Mazda 6 2.5T Sport Lowering Springs. Be sure to let us know if you have any questions-suspension is hard, even for us! Lastly, be sure to share your MZ6T with us by using #CorkSport.

-Daniel @ CorkSport

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April 10, 2019August 17, 2023

2018+ Mazda 6 Turbo Lowering Springs

2018 Mazda 6 on CorkSport Lowering Springs

We at CorkSport are happy to introduce the Sport Lowering Springs for 2018+ Mazda 6 equipped with the 2.5L turbocharged engine. We took a fresh approach to spring design to offer you the best combination of style, ride quality, and handling in a package that fits just like OEM. The new Mazda 6 looks great, but a functional drop gives it just what it needs to look even better. Combine this with the new handling characteristics and your MZ6 2.5T transforms from a fun grocery-getter to something you can actually enjoy on backroads.

2018+ Mazda 6 2.5T CorkSport Lowering Springs

Mazda 6 Ride Height

Let’s start off with the big one: ride height changes. These springs offer a conservative drop from the stock springs with about 1 inch lower in the front and about 0.75 inches lower in the rear. We chose this height as it offers a great new look without sacrificing any of the daily drivability of the Mazda6. This height clears the typical driveway with no issues, and retains plenty of suspension travel, even when fully loaded with 5 adults and weight in the trunk. Check out the image below for a direct comparison to a fully stock MZ6.

Lowered 2018 Mazda 6 vs. Stock Mazda 6 — Black: Stock Springs Red: CorkSport Lowering Springs

Improved Handling

The height drop will be noticed when you’re outside the car, but the handling improvements will be apparent when driving. By lowering the center of gravity and stiffening the springs, body roll is reduced in corners, giving you extra confidence when attacking that backroad. In addition, we stiffened the rear springs more than the fronts, reducing understeer. By number, this meant 3.8K front springs (25% stiffer than OEM) and 7.3K rear springs (45% stiffer than OEM). Derrick, our resident racecar driver and Mazda 6 Turbo owner, loves the new setup.

While this may sound like a big jump, they ride similarly to the OEM springs. We used a natural frequency analysis to ensure we achieved comfortable characteristics over bumps. Read the last half of this blog for more info on what that means (it’s complicated but awesome). Part of the great ride is the OEM dampers (shocks and struts). The spring rates we chose fit well with the stock shocks and struts to prevent any bounciness, plus, the conservative drop ensures you are in the normal operating range of the dampers. This means no prematurely worn shocks/struts due to springs that are too low.

Material Quality

Last but not least, the CS Mazda 6 Sport Lowering Springs are made from high tensile strength spring steel and come powder coated in an OEM style black for long-lasting quality and corrosion resistance. They install just like stock, reusing all your OEM components. The only permanent modification is trimming the bump stops to match OEM suspension travel.

Be sure to check out the product listing for more images, a product video with more comparisons to OEM, and pricing. Make your new Mazda 6 yours with just the right styling and handling boost from CorkSport.

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February 7, 2019September 27, 2023

Mazda 6 2.5T Stock Spring Evaluation

Today we’re taking another dive into OEM Mazda parts to better understand how they function. Specifically, OEM suspension springs, since there are CorkSport Lowering Springs coming soon for the 2018+ Mazda 6 2.5T. While a simple concept, springs are very important to the handling, appearance, and comfort of your vehicle.

The new Mazda 6 Turbo uses a lot of the same components as the GEN 3 Mazda 3 and Mazda 6, however, the suspension has been optimized for the new “premium” feel and to deal with the extra weight that comes when adding a turbo. The SkyActiv chassis has primarily remained the same though, with the same MacPherson strut front suspension and multi-link rear suspension shown below.

Now, onto the springs themselves; both the front and rear suspension of the Mazda 6 use standard compression springs. The spring’s job is to support the weight of the vehicle when at rest and adsorb impacts when hitting bumps or going quickly around a corner. That’s it. Seems simple enough right? Since the springs are the parts of the suspension that “suspends” the vehicle though, their characteristics and how they interact with the rest of the suspension system are critical.

Lowering springs design by CorkSport for Mazda 6

There are two main characteristics that define a spring: rate and free length. Both are pretty easy to understand. Free length is simply the length of the spring with no weight or force acting on it. So set a spring by itself on a table, measure how tall it is, and there’s your free length.

Spring rate is a little more complex, as it is the measure of how much weight it takes to compress a spring a given distance. So, if you have the same weight and put it on two different springs the one with the higher rate will compress less. The rate is usually measured in kg/mm (often shortened to K) or lbs/in.

For example, if you had a 2K spring and a 4K spring and applied 100kg to each, the 2K would compress 50mm and the 4K would only compress 25mm.

The spring view of the CorkSport Mazda springs

What do these measures mean for your car though? If we keep the rate the same but only change the free length, the shorter the spring, the lower the car. For a given car, a spring can be too short, causing poor ride (sitting on the bump stops all the time), or the risk of a spring coming out of place, causing noises or at worst, the spring falling out of the vehicle.

If we change the spring rate and leave the free length the same, things are a little more complicated. The higher the rate, the stiffer the ride is, plus your ride height will increase. Since the weight of the car is not changing, the higher rate spring will now compress less when the car sits on it, meaning your car sits higher at rest. Too large of a rate and your OEM shocks cannot keep up causing a bouncy ride, and vice-versa if too soft you are hitting bump stops over the smallest bump. Obviously, there is a balancing act to get the spring rate and free length correct for the application for the best in appearance, handling, and comfort.

Mazda 6 2.5L Turbo with lowering springs

Now that the basics are covered, let’s look specifically at the Mazda 6 2.5T. The OEM springs give a good ride as to be expected (likely very soft spring rates) as this can be a huge issue for potential customers if the car ride quality is harsh. Handling is decent overall but has a few quirks. When going around a corner quickly, the car rolls over onto the rear springs excessively before settling and getting through the corner. When at the limit of traction, the car understeers severely, like most cars sold today.

Finally, the ride height is pretty high, likely to prevent any issue with driveways saying hello to the new front fascia. Interestingly, the MZ6T sits a little higher in the rear; we think it ensures enough suspension travel in case there’s a full load of passengers and a full trunk.

Side view of Mazdsa 6 Turbo lowering springs height

For further analysis, we also had the OEM springs tested for rate and ended up with the following: 3.05K front, 5.05K rear. While these numbers are fairly arbitrary right now, they are a necessary data point to have when designing lowering springs. These rates also contradict a very common misconception. Many people think that because there is less weight in the rear of a front-wheel drive car, the spring rates must be softer in the rear for a good ride & handling. This is simply not true in most cases, after all why would Mazda do the opposite? Due to the design of the rear suspension, the spring is basically being pushed on by a lever. This means the spring needs to be stiffer in order to support the same amount of weight as if the lever wasn’t there.

So overall, the OEM springs are good, but have plenty of room for improvement. I just touched the surface of suspension design and as we go through more of this project we’ll get into dampers, natural frequency, and much more. Stay tuned for more info and if you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask! Check out the release blog for the Mazda 6 lowering springs.

-Daniel @ CorkSport

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Stay up-to-date on the latest news and product updates from CorkSport.

Stay up-to-date on the latest news and product updates from CorkSport.

Spring Damping

Natural Frequency Analysis

Stay up-to-date on the latest news and product updates from CorkSport.

Mazda 6 Ride Height

Improved Handling

Material Quality

Stay up-to-date on the latest news and product updates from CorkSport.

Stay up-to-date on the latest news and product updates from CorkSport.