Mazda Aftermarket Parts | CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

March 4, 2015May 28, 2024

You Asked, We Answered: Our 2nd CorkSport and Mazda Q&A

Corksport Q&A

In January, we wrote a post answering questions our fans asked. It went over so well we wanted to do it again. Here are the top 7 questions we found on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter:

Question: Would you guys consider making a turbo kit for the SkyActiv engines? What challenges would you face with that engine compared to the MZR engine?

Questioner: Michel Balk
Answer: There are a few key factors that would prove difficult to overcome when turbocharging a Skyactiv-G engine. First is the extremely high compression ratio of 13-14:1. High compression ratios and boost don’t mix well, and the supporting engine design to run that high of a compression ratio is very sensitive to major engine changes. For example: The exhaust manifold is a very well-engineered 4-2-1 design that is critical to running a high compression ratio on 87 octane fuel without pre-detonation. A typical turbo kit would replace the exhaust manifold which could cause many unknown issues. Second comes down to the overall design of the engine. Mazda has made it very clear they are chasing fuel economy, not white knuckle power. So, looking at that goal from a business standpoint, why would Mazda design the engine to handle 250+hp? That would only cost them more money. The engines are lightweight in every aspect: bearing size, connecting rods, pistons, crank…the list goes on. The SkyActiv-G engines are not built for power. Lastly, what good is a turbo kit if you can’t tune it correctly? As of right now there is not an effective method to tune the SkyActiv-powered vehicle. It’s unfortunate, but a turbo SkyActiv-G is a long shot.

Question: Give us all the info about the new CS turbo in production!

Questioner: Jeromy Williams
Answer: Well I can’t go and spill the beans, but I can give you a few tidbits of information. The goal of this turbocharger is not huge power numbers. Actually I would be in shock if anyone could get this to push 400whp with meth. The goal is to provide a turbocharger that cost only slightly more than a new K04 Turbo and is 100% bolt on. When I say bolt-on, I don’t mean “bolt-on” like BNR and ATP define it. This turbocharger requires no modifications to your current intake and exhaust systems; and no modifications need to be made to the oil and coolant lines. It’s like swapping in a new K04, but with much more power potential and no blue smoke. This effectively makes the turbocharger cheaper for the customer because none of the supporting sub-systems need to be upgraded or modified. As for some specs: Power is comparable to a BNR S3, and full spool is in the 3000-3200RPM range—depending on vehicle components. The current tune on my car is reaching 21PSI at 3200RPM with the CS EBCS running in bleed setup, and that’s on the prototype turbo without the billet compressor wheel.

Question: Will you be doing more products for Miata?

Questioner: Steve Linnehan
Answer: We are very excited about the new MX-5 Miata hitting our shores in the near future. The CorkSport sales manager is going to buy one as soon as possible. We plan to produce a respectable lineup of performance products for the new MX-5 Miata. From suspension to power, we will help you put some more pep in the Miata’s step, so stay tuned!

Question: What do I need to put more HP on my 2012 Mazda 3 2.0i SkyActiv?

Questioner: Brayam Calo
Answer: CorkSport has a couple options for your dilemma, Brayam. Combining our SRI, Cold Air Box, and Power Series Catback Exhaust System showed impressive gains for the little 2.0. On our dyno, the stock 2.0 made 118hp/110lbft, but when we added the components above, we saw power increase to 135hp/123lbft. This is a respectable increase in power for a naturally aspirated engine.

Question: What is an approximated max horsepower output that can be produced in an MS3 without upgrading turbo back?

Questioner: Christopher DeCaro
Answer: This is a difficult question to answer accurately as there are so many factors that play into the maximum power of an engine. The OEM downpipe is extremely restrictive on the MS3 and is commonly recommended as one of the first upgrades. Our dyno testing showed a 50hp increase over stock with only a Stage 2 intake, downpipe and racepipe installed. So as you add more components and eventually go with a larger turbocharger, the loss in power from the OEM downpipe will only increase.

Question: Is there a way to have the engine RPM drop faster while shifting or revving from an idle?

Questioner: Matt Zoomin Brown
Answer: The rate at which an engine can rev up or down comes down to simple physics: “Force = Mass x Acceleration”. You often hear of people upgrading their flywheel from the OEM steel piece to a lightweight steel or aluminum/steel two-piece flywheel. By reducing the weight of the flywheel and the rest of the rotating mass of the engine, you effectively reduce the amount of energy needed to make the engine rev up. The opposite works for revving down. The greater the mass of the rotating assembly, the more resistance need to stop the rotation—or the longer it takes to spin down. This is a result of the “Moment of Inertia” of the rotating mass.

Question: I would like to turbo my 2010 2.5 N/A Mazda 3, what do I need to know?

Questioner: Cynthia Senger
Answer: Like everyone else I’m going to recommend you sell your car and buy a car that was turbocharged from the factory, but for the sake of argument and fueling the fire I can point you in the right direction. The 2.5 N/A engine and the 2.3 turbo engine are very similar in design. I would start with buying a blown turbo engine, removing the exterior components, and then modifying them to work on your engine. Now the easy part is done… Next, you will need some way to tune the vehicle because turbocharging an engine that was not designed to be turbocharged is not a simple bolt-on affair. If you get past these two major hurdles, then bravo! Unfortunately, unless you improved the engine internals to handle this power, the engine will probably not live long with the added stress of its newfound power. Back to the first option: Buying a Mazdaspeed 3 makes a lot more sense in many aspects. Reliability, durability, and aftermarket support make big power much easier to achieve. Granted, a Mazdaspeed 3 may be more expensive to buy upfront, but I am almost certain it will be cheaper in the long run and will come with far fewer headaches and days without a car. I wish you the best of luck!

Thank you for your questions and keep them coming. We’ll have a Q&A every month for your Mazda performance questions.

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February 26, 2015September 30, 2024

The CorkSport Rear Brake Pads for the Mazdaspeed 6

Introducing the new CorkSport Mazdaspeed 6 Rear Brake Pads!

The CorkSport brake pads for the GEN-3-429 Mazdaspeed 6 utilize a proprietary semi-metallic and ceramic formula, which offers improved braking performance while maintaining great feedback, low dust production, and less brake fade under heavy use. The CorkSport brake pads are designed to provide a good balance for daily use, spirited street driving, and autocrossing. The CorkSport brake pads are not intended for high speed track use.

Combine the CorkSport rear brake pads with new pads for your front wheels too for a budget-friendly and performance driven brake package today!

February 19, 2015September 30, 2024

The CorkSport Adjustable Front Camber Arms for the 2006-2007 Mazdaspeed 6

Introducing the all new adjustable front camber arms for the 2006-2007 Mazdaspeed 6!

Mazdaspeed 6 Adjustable Front Camber Arms

Our new front camber arms are manufactured from A513 steel and powder-coated black for long-lasting durability. The design has been FEA (Finite Element Analysis) tested and beta tested for strength and durability. Below shows the FEA with 780 lbf (0.87g lateral cornering force) applied to the ball joint (magenta arrows) with the arm pivot points fixed (green arrows). A force of 780 lbs was the result of Road & Track Magazine’s maximum corner force of 0.87g lateral in a stock Mazdaspeed 6.

The resulting FEA shows a maximum stress of 30k PSI, with the yield strength of the material being 67k PSI. Therefore, the control arm has no yielding at the stock Mazdaspeed 6’s maximum cornering force. Remember, this is a worst case scenario, because one control arm will never need to endure the entire car’s corning force. Ultimately the design has a minimum factor of safety of 2.21.

Mazdaspeed 6 Front Camber Arm Adjustability

Probably the most exciting feature of the CorkSport Mazdaspeed 6 control arms is the camber adjustability. With an adjustment range from -0.2 degrees to -2.0 degrees, you are sure to find a setup that fits your needs. So don’t wait! Get your adjustable front camber arms here, before they’re gone!

-Barett, CS Engineering

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February 17, 2015March 16, 2021

So You Want to Go Racing in a Family Sedan?

Not too often do you get a chance to cage up your family sedan and “run what you brung,” but that’s exactly what Mazda and Robert Davis Racing (RDR) did in the 2013 NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill. Mazda took three brand new Mazda 6 Skyactiv diesel sedans out to the track and ran them. There were a few on-track incidents in the 2013 race but nothing too serious. Mazda was lining up to run the cars again in 2014, and several things fell into place that allowed CorkSport to provide some additional power improvements to the cars. We outfitted them with a downpipe and exhaust made from 80mm stainless steel, a high flow intake system, an upgraded intercooler and piping, and some ECU tuning. This gave the cars more power to stand a shot at the podium in E1 with better fuel economy than the other class cars and more power than the previous year.

Inside the group of three Mazda Sedans was a rivalry of the Mazdaspeed Guys (comprised of Mazdaspeed Motorsports employees) and the Dealers CEB (Crayon Eating Bastards), a group of Mazda dealership owners/employees. The dealers controlled cars #55 and #56, and the Factory Guys (Mazda Employees) had #70, all fighting it out for bragging rights. Before the race got going #70 hit a snag where a coolant line came loose and overheated a motor, which prompted a Thursday motor change.

By Friday the cars were all in good shape for qualifying. This went down trouble-free despite a giant rainstorm, as if it wasn’t hard enough trying to run a fast lap with 58 other cars out on the track in six classes— all of which had different speeds.

Thankfully, by Saturday morning the weather had cleared up, and the forecast predicted dry racing for the full 25 hours. This prompted us to get the three cars ready to run on slicks which were mounted up on the wheels and installed on the cars.

Right at 11 am the flag dropped and started the longest race in North America. This was, needless to say, an adventure for the whole team. Several hours into the race, the driver of #70 reported that the car would not shift into all of the gears. It turns out the extra power was a little harder on the drive train in the higher gears, which removed the 5th gear from being functional. The driver decided to stay out and run the race in 6th gear until the fuel stop came up. That turned out to be hours later courtesy of the excellent fuel economy of the Skyactiv engine. The pit area was prepped for a transmission swap with a spare gearbox the team had brought with them. Unfortunately, this took the car out of any chance of being on the podium, but with endurance racing you never know what will happen! So the transmission change went ahead as planned.

At the first extended yellow flag session #55 and #56 reported a power loss in the cars. This resulted in a massive jam session to diagnose and fix what was going on with the cars. Since these specific cars live their lives on the track they did not get a chance to be tested with the new modifications at low speeds (AKA street driving speeds) which brought up an exciting challenge with the fire control systems in the cars. It took ~about 2 hours to sort out the problem, and we had the #55 and #56 back at full speed heading into the night.

The #70 was getting its final work completed with the transmission change and ready to head out onto the track again well behind the Mazda dealers in the #55 and #56 cars. Late into the night, after a driver change, we got a call in on the radio #55 had an on-track incident with another car in the E2 class, and sadly both cars had to retire from the race. This E2 class car happened to be leading the class which RDR was also fielding “Kermit,” the green RX8, in. Though the incident was unfortunate, as a result Kermit moved to the leader position of the E2 class.

Several hours later we got a call in from #56 of an off-track situation which required the car to retire from the race too. This put the #70 Mazda 6 in position to finish ahead of the #55 and #56 for total laps if its drivers could finish the race trouble-free. As the sun came up, the #70 car was running without a hitch, as was Kermit.

From sunrise until noon, the race for the two remaining cars was uneventful. At the noon finale of the race Kermit secured the win in E2 for the first time! Like in any race, there were things you learn and adjustments for the next time on the track. I want to give a huge thanks to RDR, Mazda, Mazdaspeed, the volunteer crew peeps , and Weldon for the guidance on my first time being a crew chief for an endurance race. Lastly, a big thanks to Ruandy from Pacific Northwest Life for the great camera shots—and to my family for letting me miss an entire weekend at another race.

-Derrick

Interested in any of the diesel performance parts we developed? Shoot an email to

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February 6, 2015February 6, 2015

The CorkSport Leather Shift Knob for Mazdas

It’s back, and it’s better than ever! Re-introducing the CorkSport weighted leather shift knob for 2004+ manual transmission Mazdas.

Weighing in at a respectable 320 grams, the CorkSport leather shift knob will help smooth your gear changes and customize the interior of your Mazda while doing so. With an ergonomic design and large top surface, the CorkSport leather shift knob is comfortable to use for any grip position. Check out the difference between the OEM shift knob and the CorkSport leather shift knob.

Manufactured from Delrin plastic, then hand-wrapped and stitched with high grade black leather, the CorkSport leather shift knob will stand up to daily driving and track use day-in and day-out. The baseball style stitches are tight and clean, leaving no loose edges to fray or annoy you; and the leather has a slight texture and plushness to it, so it feels great in your hand.

Don’t wait! Get your leather shift knob today before they’re gone!