Mazda | CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

June 3, 2011September 13, 2018

Twin Turbo Mazda What!?!

That’s right folks, Mazda is going to release a new twin turbo model and it is going to be used in none other than: a diesel Mazda 3!

Before everyone heads out to get the ropes to hang me for luring you into this blog post with the promise of twin turbos, let me explain. Mazda has been working to lower emissions while improving the performance of their motors for both gas and diesel. One such way Mazda has found is to run a really small turbo and a larger turbo in tandem to keep the performance linear in the diesel engines.

Mazda has been down this path before back in the late 80’s and early 90’s with two versions of the rotary engine, the 13B –RE used in the Eunos Cosmo and the 13B-REW used in the FD RX-7. Both 13B engines used a pair of turbos, a primary turbo that would spool until the RPM reached the switch-over point when the secondary turbo would come online to generate an ideal turbo response and wide enough power band for the car. This same feature will be applied with the diesel engine giving you a wider power band to drive with.

Mazda has also lowered the compression of the diesel engine allowing the combustion to be more complete and putting less stress on the engine parts. This gives Mazda the ability to use lighter weight smaller parts to gain efficiency and provide better emissions.

The really trick feature Mazda has put on the diesel engine is variable valve timing. This allows the exhaust valves to open slightly after the initial startup to let exhaust gas into the combustion chamber on the intake stroke. The exhaust gas then warms the combustion chamber to help the engine get to operating temperature more quickly thereby reducing the chance of engine misfire.

Mazda has stated that the engine has 20% better fuel economy over the outgoing MZR-CD diesel engines putting it at 48 MPG (the MZR-CD engine gets 40 MPG).

Now the big question is would I own a new Mazda with the new Sky-D engine? With all of the work Mazda has put into the new engine, I look forward to trying one out and will wait to pass judgment.

For more information head to the technical information Mazda has made public on their webpage

– Derrick

May 27, 2011September 13, 2018

787B Race Car Coming Out Of Retirement

In celebration of becoming the first and only Japanese car manufacturer to win the world’s most demanding endurance race, the 24-Hours of Le Mans, Mazda will be demonstrating the winning Mazda 787B, on the Circuit de la Sarthe in La Mans, France on June 11, before the start of the race.

The Mazda 787B was jointly developed by Mazda and MazdaSpeed in 1990 to 1991. The 787 has a chassis designed to meet Group C racing car technical regulations and is powered by a R26B four-rotor naturally aspirated engine that produces 700 horsepower. 1991 was the last year that a rotary-engine car could participate in the 24 Hour of Le Mans.

At the 59th 24 Hours of Le Mans, Mazda was not the favorite to win, but the three 3.5 liter cars that Mazda submitted for the races were given first grid positions despite being the 12th, 17th and 24th fastest qualifiers. On the day before the race, the team manager instructed the drivers to drive as if it were a short sprint race rather than an endurance event, a decision he made based on the reliability the cars demonstrated and the car’s exceptional fuel economy.

At the 22nd hour of the race, #55, an outrageously painted bright orange and green Mazda 787B, took the lead and was the first to cross the finish line, completing 362 laps and covering just over 3,064 miles.

Since 1991, the winning Mazda 787B has primarily been displayed at the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima, Japan. Mazda carefully restored the winning 787B racecar back to driving condition and has tested it using one of Mazda’s in-house top gun drivers.

Mazda’s attendance at the 79th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans also coincides with the 50th anniversary of its development of the rotary engine.

– Gwynne

May 24, 2011May 20, 2011

Reach for the Sky

We have been blogging about the Mazda Sky series of engines over the last year but Mazda had yet to announce any specifics about them in terms of fuel economy, displacement, and size.

1.3 Sky-G Engine

This week Mazda took the wraps of the first production Sky engine which will be available in the Mazda 2/Demio in Japan later this year. The engine will be showcased at the Automotive Engineering Exposition near Tokyo Japan from May 18th-20th.

The first engine will be a 1.3 liter displacement gasoline engine which is rated at 70 miles per gallon. This is from a gasoline engine alone, no expensive hybrid setup. The Toyota Prius for example is rated at 51 mpg for city driving and has to pack around the extra hybrid drivetrain. The Sky-G engine features a 14 to 1 compression engine (the highest compression mass production motor ever manufactured) with a direct injection system. The engine features a whole collection of new designs Mazda engineers have been working on over the last few years.

Despite all of the fuel economy goals and gas saving technologies, the engine still produces a decent amount of power for a 1.3 liter making about 80 hp at 5400 rpm.

Specially Designed Sky Piston

Mazda mentions that the engine is an all new design except for the exhaust manifold. I bet we will see a trick exhaust manifold available soon after the Sky engine gets released to the rest of the planet next year which will help it with emissions in various markets.

There is another recent development which I have not seen any automotive news outlets mention. Two engineers Takashi Youso and Masahisa Yamakawa from Mazda’s powertrain division have been recognized by the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan for an outstanding technical paper they have produced. The paper was on the development of HCCI or Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition which is when fuel and air are well mixed then compressed to auto ignition. You may think big deal, diesel engines do this already. Gasoline is harder to work with when you factor in how it can pre-ignite easier than diesel and the wide variety of fuel grades/blends around the planet. The paper is about gasoline HCCI, which has super low nitrogen oxide and carbon emissions output, and offers improved fuel economy. I can picture a Mazda 2 getting 80mpg+ which would be incredible from an all gas engine. This is a technical paper so the design is not in production but it gives some good insight on how much Mazda is pushing the envelope of the standard gas engine.

– Derrick

May 17, 2011May 13, 2011

The Game Plan

Many of you reading this blog are probably either a Mazda enthusiast or at least you have some interest in Mazdas. With CorkSport being a one make brand and not adding any other brands like Hyundai or Subaru, our success is basically tied to the success of Mazda. I personally check the news about Mazda daily to see what is going on, which leads me to this blog post.

About 8 months ago there were some rumors going around about Mazda looking to open a new factory in Mexico. Mazda officials dismissed the rumors and the story faded away. At the beginning of this month there was an executive change and Robert Davis was promoted to Senior Vice President of the newly created US Operations division. The new division is an effort by Mazda to capture more North American business.

All of these changes points towards Mazda’s aggressive goals for sales share of the US market. The Mexican based manufacturing plant makes perfect sense. Mexico is part of the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) which will give Mazda an advantage with less import fees on the cars brought in to the US along with transportation costs being lower, compared to shipping them from Japan. The new plant also gives Mazda a way out of the Auto Alliance plant they share with Ford in Flat Rock, Michigan which is costing Mazda a lot money.

Mazda is looking to get out of this agreement with Ford and they are serious about the change. There was news this week about Mazda saying that they are looking to discontinue the Mazda 6 built in the USA. This is to be a two part item with the switch to the replacement for the Mazda 6 and to switch to the new manufacturing plant.

The new plant gives Mazda the opportunity to expand their production facilities to meet their new goals set to increase sales to 2 million units yearly. I expect to see the official news about the new plant in the next few months once Mazda gets the personnel changes made to get the US operations division setup and going.

I find it exciting to see the very start of the changes Mazda is making to meet their new goals and I look forward to more information coming up later this year about it.

– Derrick

April 29, 2011April 29, 2011

Mazda Makes (Helps) the World Go Round

With Mazda getting ready to end production of the RX-8, it seemed fitting to take a look back in history to see just how the rotary powered Mazda faired in the US nearly 30 years ago. The newspaper article on the right is from the Thursday, March 1st, 1973 edition of the Toledo, Ohio paper; The Blade.

With the introduction of the 1975 EPA air-pollution standards, came required catalytic converters and unleaded gasoline. While some US car manufacturers struggled to meet the strict (for the time) standards, Mazda was decades ahead. Maybe so far as to say that the US auto makers were trying to insinuate that the Japanese based Mazda was somehow cheating the system.

In continuing with the rotary history lesson, the article below is from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (June 29th, 1973). While some auto makers were having trouble with detonation due to the newly introduced unleaded gasoline, the rotary powered Mazda showed no signs of weakness in part to the limited number of moving parts and overall simplicity of the rotary engine design.

After having such a long history with rotary engines, will Mazda finally say goodbye to the rotary engine? Will we see an RX-7 inspired vehicle from Mazda in the near future?

In more recent rotary inspired news, last weekend, three race teams (SpeedSource, Dempsey Racing, and Team Sahlen) raced with special logos on the sides of their vehicles promoting donations to the American Red Cross to help fund the Japan Earthquake Tsunami Relief Fund. The Mazda Foundation also made a #150,000 donation.

If you would like to donate $10 to the Red Cross Japan relief efforts, simply text REDCROSS to 90999.

– Jake