There were some rumors and news flying around in March of last year that Mazda was in talks with Toyota to get their hands on the hybrid technology they had developed. The system people had mentioned was the Toyota Synergy Hybrid Tech and was to be combined with the Mazda Sky engines. The vehicles were slated to be available in 2013.
This week Mazda announced that they will be offering electric vehicles starting on 2012. The vehicle will be the Mazda 2/Demio and will be offered to fleet accounts, like government and larger corporations, instead of individuals.
Mazda makes no mention of the hybrid technology that they were working on getting from Toyota. This leads me to speculate that with the news of the all-electric car and the gasoline technology advances that Mazda has been working on we might not see a hybrid from Mazda. I personally don’t think it would be worth it for Mazda to continue pursuing 3 different paths for better fuel economy. Given the size of Mazda it doesn’t make much sense from a cost standpoint. The Sky drivetrains will make Mazda competitive with most of the hybrids on the market without having to run heavy batteries and hybrid drivetrain systems. The all-electric vehicles are going to be strictly fleet vehicles, which means there is no need for the infrastructure of charging stations.
Mazda did have one hybrid vehicle in the past, the Tribute, but it was based on the Ford Escape. With Ford only owning about 3% in Mazda these days, the technology sharing looks to have changed between the two companies to a minimal amount.
I do look forward to seeing what Mazda can innovate for the electric vehicle. Mazda has always been willing to go a different direction from other car manufacturers to solve problems. I think we will see an example of that in 2012, much like what we have seen with the Sky engine systems.
We have had our CorkSport brand products out on the race track this year in several venues. The first was Dobson Motorsports Mazdaspeed 3 in the USTTC series and the other in the Mazdaspeed Motorsports Mazda 2 at the NASA 25 hour Thunder Hill endurance race.
The Dobson Motorsports Mazdaspeed 3 in the USTCC was driven by Ken Dobson and Gary Sheehan for the 2010 season. The Mazda finished 2nd in the championship for the year missing the championship by 1 point. The car placed first 3 times during the season. The car builder Greg Garneau chose the CorkSport Ram Air Front Mount Intercooler kit and CorkSport Turbo Back Exhaust for the major power adders during the construction of the Mazdaspeed 3. The car ran great the entire race season with the only mechanical problem coming up was a cooling issue from a radiator problem.
The Mazdaspeed 3 is tuned to a maximum of 270 wheel horsepower due to the class rules but the torque is unlimited which puts the Mazdaspeed 3 at an advantage due to the output of the Mazda 2.3 DISI engine.
The Mazda 2 was built by Mazdaspeed Motorsports to showcase the just announced B Spec race series. The modifications are limited for the B-Spec class to suspension, safety, and some bolt on performance parts. We supplied the newly released CorkSport Short Ram Intake to give the 2 some extra power for the 25 hour non stop race. The Mazda 2 performed well during the race with no mechanical problems. There were several offs while racing do to the weather conditions (lots of rain). I was told by one of the drivers Tim Buck, “Everyone that drove went off. The weather was pretty ugly, and if you didn’t go off occasionally you just weren’t trying hard enough”.
25 hours later
I would like to thank Greg Garneau and Tim Buck for the information about the cars and the racing I used in the blog post. If you have been using your CorkSport products in any racing, pro or amateur we would like to hear from you. Feel free to email me with any information.
After a semi trailer’s re-tread tire shattered our Mazda 2’s windshield and ruined the hood (I’ll leave that for Derrick to write about since he was driving), it was time for some much needed TLC. To start with, we fitted the 2 with a new CorkSport Stainless Steel exhaust (still in the testing phase). It includes a cat-delete pipe, full mandrel bent piping, and a 90mm rolled dual wall tip. The exhaust gives a nice, but not overbearing tone that even your significant other will not complain about.
The next Christmas present the 2 received is a new front strut tower bar. There was not much clearance for this bar to fit, but we managed to make it work. The bar utilizes laser cut mounting plates and even allows you to keep the brake reservoir in its stock location. As shown in the picture, the bar is black powder coated and installs in just minutes.
The last item that hasn’t made its way on to the 2 yet is a quick-release rear hatch brace similar the the Mazda 3 version that we currently sell. The prototype bar utilizes cnc milled mounts that will be totally hidden behind the hatch molding except for the actual mounting holes.
My initial impressions of the 2 were that it was simply a commuter sub-compact. Now that I have spent several days working on and driving this car, I have come to like it’s fuel efficient and nimble stature.
Have a new product idea or question? Feel free to email me.
We have put some miles on the Mazda 2 over the last month and a half. We are approaching the 2000 mile mark. At this point the engine is well broken in and up to the challenge of some performance driving.
I had a chance to Autocross the Mazda 2 on Sept 18th at a local SCCA event held at Portland International Raceway. I signed up the car for time only runs to see how it would do. If the Mazda 2 was to be in a specific class it would be ST class according to the SCCA rules with the current modifications. This would pit me up against Mazda 3s, Honda Civics, Mini Coopers (non S models), etc.
The course that was laid out was tight and technical with not many sections to build up speed. The weather decided to liberally apply water to the course making setting record speeds pretty tough. After taking my turn working on the course and watching other cars maneuver through it was my turn to give a go. I do have experience driving around cones racing rally cross so I am not a total novice. This also means I had expectations of what the 2 would do on the auto cross course.
For the first run I left the DSC (dynamic stability control) turned on. I wanted to see how much affect it would have at a maximum drive. The first few corners went well and I could not feel the DSC engage at any point. When I hit the first short slalom I felt the car try to rein in my driving. A quick back and forth transition around the 3rd cone combined with me applying the brakes to get the car to unload the rear tires to make a quick right hand turn got the DSC light to kick on. I could tell the car closed the throttle and killed some of the power because it took a second to get my momentum back up for a “Chicago Box”.
Overhead view of cones as a “Chicago Box”
With the Mazda 2 the Chicago box was a breeze, just drive in and out with just steady speed and quick steering inputs. After the Chicago box there were a few more corners and into another slalom which once again the DSC came back half way through it. What is happening is the cone side front tire is unloading enough for the wheel to slip and it triggers the DSC. After the end of the slalom there was a tight left hand corner which transitioned to a longer sweeping corner. This corner trigger the DSC as the car wanted to under steer to the outside. I was off and on the throttle trying to get the car to rotate and get back in tighter to the apex of the corner. With the DSC turned on the throttle inputs did not help. The final section of the course was a short straight which did a 180 turn to the left and the end of the course with the timing lights. To make the corner with the Mazda 2 I opted for the e-brake approach. It worked ok but I was caught in 2nd gear so I didn’t have enough power to quickly get across the finish line after the turn. I netted a 52.68 for a time on the run which was ok for the really wet course.
The second run I ramped it up a bit. I took the DSC off and pushed the car as hard as I could. I discovered several things on the second run.
#1: The car will really under steer if pushed hard in the wet. I tried off and on throttle, left foot braking, Finnish flicks, you name it to get the 2 to rotate with no really sure fire method that worked.
#2: You can get rubber on the 1st to 2nd gear change with the DSC off. There were two spots where I had to get into second gear due to bouncing off the rev limiter and both of them occurred just before the slalom sections.
#3: With the DSC off, you can get the ABS to engage quite often. I had the ABS turn on several times with hard braking and turning which would unload a rear tire. With the brakes applied and weight transfer it was enough to cause the rear tire to lock up and trigger the ABS.
#4: Using the E-brake on the last corner only works so-so. When you get the back of the 2 swung around and get back on the throttle the car will under steer pushing you really wide. This resulted in some extra time getting the car lined up with the timing lights at the end of the run.
#5: You can use the E-brake to get the car to really slide sideways. Unfortunately the under steer takes affect after a few seconds and ruins the fun but not before you can get some great pictures.
The second run netted me a 51.86 second time but I hit some cones in the process. The third run I picked up a passenger to take along. I could tell the extra ballast was in the car. The run was slower despite not hitting any cones. If you are going to race a Mazda 2 in Autocross make sure you leave the passengers out until the scoring runs are done. My 3rd run was 53.03 seconds.
I got a chance to try out several different techniques for the three extra runs which had mixed results. The big handling obstacle to overcome is the under steer in the Mazda 2. We have a solution in the works so check back for updates.
So how did I do compared to the other cars which I would be classed against in ST? There was a Mazda 3 hatch which was running at the same time which posted times of 53.96, 54.43, and 53.59 seconds. A Mazdaspeed 3 running at the same time posted times of 55.07, 53.18, and 52.94 seconds. The Mazdaspeed 3 would be in a different class due to the power modifications but you can see the 2 would be competitive against it. If you compare the times against the more powerful cars you can see the Mazda 2 would do well. I want to try out the Mazda 2 on high speed auto cross courses to see if I would have the same success against the same cars.
Overall I really enjoyed running the Mazda 2 in the auto cross. It handled better than I expected with my driving style and proved to be very predictable.
I would like to give a thank you to Ceejay for the pictures I used in the blog. He stood out in the rain shooting pictures while I and the other MazdasNW people drove around the cones during the afternoon.
After putting almost two thousand miles on our new Mazda 2, we have already added our own touches to the car to make it a true CorkSport vehicle. The two pictures below shows our CorkSport License Plate Relocation Bracket, which has been modified from the current Mazda 3 application to not only to fit on the passenger side of the vehicle, but also with a prototype Lexan frame (Production part would be a black opaque Lexan with our new CS logo etched on the face if we do go with Lexan). It utilizes the stock tow hook location so no drilling or cutting is required.
Another new product we have in the works for release in the near future is and LED kit that would replace the license plate, hatch, and interior lights with LED’s (license plate light can be seen in picture below reflecting off the ground). The kit would also include two LED amber blinker bulbs (for the front blinkers) with built in resistors to keep flash rates normal, but with an updated and refined look. Additionally, we are getting ready to release a fog/DRL light kit (shown in the picture below) for the 2 as well as the 3, 6, CX-7 and RX-8. As you can see in the picture below, the 23 LED bulbs put off a 6,000K color, which matches the LED light kits that we currently sell.
Finally, we are finishing up testing and validation of our CorkSport Power Series Short Ram Intake for the Mazda 2. It includes all of the features of past CS SRI kits such as a silicone coupler, T-bolt clamps, and a machined and anodized MAF housing (anodized version not shown in picture) and CS logo etched post anodizing.
Look for all these products to be available in the very near future. Don’t see a product in the works for your 2 that you want to see made? Have an idea for any other part you want to see get made? Submit a product idea here.
