Tag: Mazda Performance

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Product Release! CorkSport Underbody 4-Brace Set for Mazda 3/Mazdaspeed 3

CorkSport is happy to announce another addition to our suspension performance line-up for Mazda 3 and Mazdaspeed 3 vehicles with the CorkSport Underbody 4-Brace Set.

The CorkSport underbody 4-Brace Set for Mazda 3 and Mazdaspeed 3 will reduce undesirable chassis flex and increase control during hard cornering and acceleration.

The lightweight double wall I-bean construction will increase rigidity without adding unnecessary weight to the vehicle.

Using the latest in computer aided technology, the CorkSport Underbody 4-Brace Set has reinforced machined brackets that tie load points together for reduced flexing and distortion of the chassis to improve both the stability and responsiveness of the vehicle.

“Reinforcing the chassis is often an overlooked performance enhancement, especially on vehicles with lots of modifications,” said Rich Harris, President of CorkSport Mazda Performance, “Adding an underbrace set will reduce twisting of the chassis by linking the frame to the sub-frame, locking the front sub-frame in place.”

The CorkSport Underbody 4-Brace Set for Mazda 3 and Mazdaspeed 3 has been anodized black and includes an etched CorkSport logo for added durability, longevity and a genuine CorkSport look.

As with all CorkSport products, the CorkSport Underbody 4-Brace Set includes a two-year warranty, full color installation instructions, all of the needed installation hardware, and knowledgeable telephone installation support. It can be purchased today at CorkSport.com for $249.00.

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Orange County Choppers All Mazda Meet 2012

In our annual pilgrimage to the East Coast, we attended the All Mazda Meet at Orange County Chopper this year on April 21st. The event was organized by Storm who works at OCC and drives a Mazdaspeed 3 (thanks Storm!).

This year had a record turnout of people with 262 Mazdas and 496 people signed up. The OCC parking lot and a chunk of the adjacent Hilton parking lot were full the entire day along with the overflow parking in the grass at OCC. You can get a good idea of the crowd size with the line to get the good bags.

We saw a wide range of cars in attendance this year but the most popular by far was the 2010+ Mazdaspeed 3’s. They were the singles largest group of Mazda model which attended overall.

Enough talking for now, here are the pictures…

Domii’s Mazda 2 repping in the CorkSport display

I hear the A-team theme playing in my head when I look at this Mazdaspeed 3

69,000 original miles on this Rx2 and it looked great!

At the end of the day CorkSport had two awards to give away. The first was the CorkSport choice award (Unicorn trophy) which was given to Kevin F who has a great looking 2012 white Mazdaspeed 3.

The second award we gave away for the CorkSport Senior Citizens Award which was given to Steve K. Check out the video of the award presentation below,

Big thanks to Storm for putting on the show again this year and to all of you who showed up to the event and we got to meet.

Derrick-

Want more pictures? Check out our CorkSport Facebook page.

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Product Release! CorkSport Oil Catch Can Development and Release Notes

Sometimes projects take a lot longer than expected to get to release. After several design changes, lots of simulations, and plenty of mounting revisions, we are happy to announce the release the CorkSport Oil Catch Can for Mazda and Mazdaspeed vehicles.

Oil catch cans are designed to separate the water, oil and other contaminants from your PCV system. The PCV system feeds directly in the intake manifold causing all these contaminants to be pushed to the back of the valves then into the engine cylinders. As cars wear, we see more and more contaminants in the PCV system and then into the engine.

Many of you have followed the development as we moved through our design revisions beginning with our first concept, a titanium oil catch can that used stainless steel wool to separate out the oil and several versions in-between before we came to the design that we are happy to be releasing today.

Unlike other catch cans on the market that simply expect the contaminates to fall out of the PCV vapors, our newly released oil catch can has a unique cyclonic vacuum design that forces contaminants to the walls of the can before the air can move back into the intake system. This Solidworks simulation shows how the system was designed. You can see that the air swirls around the outside of the can trapping the contaminants at the wall. This allows them to fall through a disk that is welded between two chambers used to separate the PCV vapors and the contaminants. Once the contaminants are separated you can view them with a sight tube located on the side of the catch can.

We were particularly surprised to see how much water vapor builds up in the crank case of these cars. After a few miles of driving with the catch can on our shop Mazdaspeed 3, we could really see what separates our catch can from the competition. After only 500 miles we had separated out a great deal of contaminants from the PCV system. Most of which was water vapor that had been trapped in the PCV lines and engine block. This alone should ensure that oil doesn’t break down quickly on our DISI MZR engine.

After 3000 miles we performed our first oil change. The results were exactly what we expected, a much smaller concentration of water but a noticeable amount of oil. MZR engines are notorious for slight amounts of blow by getting back into the engine. As you can see from the picture this is something you don’t want getting back into your engine. We took this sample and sent it out for particulate analysis. The results really prove that you don’t want this in your engine. Along with a large amount of oil, which can be seen, there was metal and water present in the oil. All of which we don’t want to be reburned in our engine or stuck to the back of our valves.

Even though it took a little longer than we expected to release this, I’m sure everyone will agree that there are certain things you want done right and somethings are worth the wait. When it comes down to it there are just some contaminants that you never want entering your motor. Most of them are listed on the sheet to the right.

The CorkSport Oil Catch Can will enhance the reliability of your engine and improve performance and fuel economy. It is made from high-grade aluminum with a pressed annodized top cap and includes a chemical resistant sight tube. It comes with a complete mounting kit and can be purchased from CorkSport here.

For more information about this product or to purchase one today, please visit our product page on our online catalog at https://corksport.com

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Mazda 3 SkyActiv Short Ram Performance Air Intake

CorkSport began development of the new SkyActiv intake as soon as the technology was made available in the United States and today is happy to be the first Mazda aftermarket performance company to add a short ram intake for the 2012+ SkyActiv Mazda 3 and 2013+ Mazda CX-5 to its catalog of Mazda performance parts.

Engineered with exacting tolerances, the CorkSport Mazda SkyActiv Intake includes our precision machined MAF housing made from billet aluminum, durable dry flow air filter and custom reinforced silicone connector. In initial testing on the SkyActiv Mazda CX5, the CorkSport SkyActiv Short Ram Intake netted peak gains of +5 HP and +6 lb torque.

Mazda 3 Skyactiv Short Ram Intake Dyno Results

“Sales for Mazda’s new SkyActiv product line-up have shown tremendous potential and we have had several product requests for a SkyActiv short ram intake,“ said Rich Harris, President of CorkSport Mazda Performance, “Our engineering staff really stepped up to the plate to get our new SkyActiv intake to market quickly in order to fully support the Mazda community.”

Skyactive Mazda Engine Bay with CorkSport Short Ram Intake

CorkSport has already confirmed the fitment of the single exit Mazda 3 exhaust for the SkyActiv Mazda 3 and made it available to the public and is happy to be able to add a second performance offering designed for the SkyActiv technologies developed by Mazda to increase fuel efficiency and engine output.

As with all CorkSport Mazda SRIs, the SkyActiv Short Ram Intake comes with a two-year limited warranty, full-color installation instructions, and CorkSport service and support. For added support, this kit also has a complete installation video.

The CX-5 SkyActiv intake can be purchased separately in our newly added CorkSport CX5 catalog and the Mazda 3 SkyActiv Intake can be purchased as an option that has been added to the CorkSport Power Series 2.0 Liter Mazda 3 intake.

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Because Racecar

As some of you have read of the last few years I really like the Mazda 2. Before it was released in the US I had written several blog posts on my thoughts. When we picked up the first Mazda 2 delivered in the US we set out to develop a range of parts for the 2. We have also had a chance to drive 2 in autocross events and down lots of winding roads.

Once you get to the point of completing the parts you need developed on a shop car what happens next? In the case of the CorkSport Mazda 2 you turn it into a B-Spec racecar. Why would you want to do that to a new car I am sure some of you are asking? If you have read the blog about my participation in the SCCA driving school you know that I am working towards my alter ego race car driving dream and the B-Spec racecar gives a good way to approach this being cost effective.

This leads us back to the CorkSport Mazda 2. To make it a B-Spec racer requires some work. Make that a lot of work. The first thing to building the car is to install a roll cage which is it probably one of the most time consuming parts of the job. First you start off with your stock interior and take it out.

Once you finish up that easy task you need to remove all of the sound deadener Mazda installed in the chassis. There are two methods to do this. #1 is with an air chisel and being very careful to not punch a hole through the floor of your car and #2 use dry ice. The dry ice method is something I had not done before but it sounded easy enough. That and if you have left over dry ice a plastic 2 liter bottles can be lots of fun. Check out the video below of me using the dry ice to remove the sound deadener.

If I can offer a tip while doing this is to get 2-3 blocks of the dry ice so you can have several sections cooling down and keep working so you do not have to stock between the freezing of the sound deadener.

Once you completely remove of the insulation you get to start on the roll cage. This takes time and precision to get done. If you have never done this work before, I strongly recommend taking it to a professional to get done. The materials, welds, and design all need to meet the specifications of the racing sanctioning body you will be participating with. In this case we used the specs from the SCCA GCR (General Competition Rules) which are accepted by other road racing sanctioning bodies.

We went with a nascar style door bars to give the driver more space in case there is a side impact and a bit of an angle for easier entry into the car while climbing over the cage.

After all of the hard work is done with the cage getting installed you need to paint it. We wanted the color to match the exterior so we ordered up several cans of the 38P paint code color from an online supplier and got to work. After taping up the interior to limit overspray we got to work with the color and the clear coat. The finished product looks good. The picture below shows the rear section painted with the base coat.

The final product looks great and matches well with the exterior paint of the 2.

Once the paint had dried we got to work installing the safety gear for the car. We went with a set of Sparco 6 point harnesses and a Sparco Circuit Seat.

Mounting the harnesses takes some planning. After getting a good idea of where we were going to mount the seat we got to work on the mounting points for the harness. In the Mazda 2 there is only 1 factory bolt location that we could use for the lap belt. The other side of the factory seat belt mounts to the original seat. The rules require you to have a 4 inch square backing plate for the harness on the back side of the car body to make sure the anchor points for the bolts do not tear through if you are involved in a wreck. We had to do this in three locations on the 2, one for the lap belt on the tunnel side and the two for the sub belt. After planning the hole locations and making sure there was no interference (make sure when you are drilling hole into your car you look at the other side of the panel) parts on the bottom of the 2 which there was since the brake lines and fuel lines pass under the drivers seat, we got to work with drilling the holes and mounting the eyelets. The actual installation of the harnesses is easy, they simple snap onto the mounting eyes and feeding the harness around the cage bar behind the seat.

The seat is a 1 piece FIA approved bucket which is a side mount style. With the Mazda 2 being out on the market for a short time we found there were no mounting brackets available which meant we got to build them ourselves. Thankfully this is a pretty straightforward task in the Mazda 2. After sourcing some inch and a quarter steel we pressed the shapes we needed and mounted up the seat. We set the seat up so there is a slight bend in the drivers legs when the pedals are pulley depressed. This allows you to have leverage and keep a comfortable seated position when driving. We also mounted the seat as low as we could and still give the driver good visibility of the track. A lower position means lower center of gravity in the car and the best handling of the car.

This is where we are at for the moment with the 2. I will be updating the build in the next few weeks to show the final result of the car.

Derrick-