I noticed something interesting today while checking out the “Spy Shot” Cx9, which has been driving around for road testing here in the U.S. Check out the intercooler parked in the front end of the vehicle.
Photo Credit: caradvice.com.au
This can mean one of two things. The first, which is massively unlikely courtesy of VW, is a 2.2 SkyActiv diesel engine. The second, is that we’re looking at a 2.5 turbo engine out in the wild, which means all those rumors of the future Mazdaspeed 3 are looking better and better for next year.
2017 Mazdaspeed Engine October 21st, 2015CorkSport
We thought so, because we’ve seen almost 150 of your rides at night, most of them in the first 24 hours of the sweepstakes. We’re thrilled, because we love seeing Mazdas lit up on the road after dark — and we know you like taking night pics, because we’ve been seeing them tagged with #CorkSport for years.
Well, now’s the time to take advantage of all that photography, and enter your night ride to win if you haven’t yet! The winner’s chosen at random, so you’ll have as good a chance as anyone if you enter today.
Just remember to hurry up. We’re picking a winner from one of these gorgeous entries on Monday, October 19:
And hey: Don’t worry about those votes. If you missed the rules and didn’t catch that random part, they won’t affect your chances of winning, just of being featured at the tip top of the contest page.
Cheers,
CorkSport
The CorkSport Night Ride Sweepstakes September 13th, 2018CorkSport
We’ve written before about how most Americans prefer sedans to a hatch, a phenomenon we don’t entirely understand. Part of us feels like to each his own. You fill your garage with sedans; I’ll enjoy my Mazdaspeed 3 — and also my Mazdaspeed 6, because we get it: sedans can be great too. Live and let live. On the other hand, the fact that people overwhelmingly prefer sedans is part of the reason we haven’t seen the new Mazda 2 in this country. We can sit and stew about this, or we can tell you the benefits of driving a hatchback. If you’re already on board, tell us in the comments what perks we missed.
1. More storage room
Want to drive your mountain bike up to the cabin you just rented for the weekend? No problem! If you drive a hatchback, that is. You can compare just about any two models of the same car, and the hatchback beats the sedan for storage space every time. Without that extra room taken up by the barrier between the back seat and the trunk, you can fill your hatch with boxes, a dog crate, or any piece of recreational equipment you want. If you need more space, add a luggage rack — but 99.9% of the time, if you drive a hatchback, you won’t need more.
2. More headroom
A lot of sedans are made with average heights in mind. That’s fine if you’re 5’10” on the dot or anything below, but if you’re even slightly taller, you’re gonna feel cramped. The solution: A hatchback. Hatches tend to have a lot more clearance, so no more bumping your head when you step in and out of the driver’s seat. It’s downright roomy in there.
3. Better resale value
This can change from car to car, but as topyaps pointed out, “Hatchbacks have the highest resale value and significantly much better than that of a sedan.” Of course, few of us can see ourselves parting with our dear Mazdaspeed 3s anytime soon, but we all know that one day we’ll have to trade our baby in — if only because the new 2017 Mazdaspeed 3 is finally released. If you want to get the most bang for your buck and recuperate some of the initial cost, buy a hatchback, not a sedan.
4. Same mileage
What’s that, you say? All of these benefits without a higher cost at the gas pump? It’s true, usually. Hatchbacks tend to have around the same gas mileage as their sedan counterparts, so you don’t have to fork over more money as the years pass. They’re great cars; they’re practical; and they’re as efficient as any sedan. Are you sold yet? If not, take a ride in your buddy’s MS3. If the other benefits of driving a hatchback don’t sway you, that will.
Cheers,
CorkSport
The Benefits of Driving a Hatchback December 18th, 2017CorkSport
As we eagerly await more news about the 2017 Mazdaspeed 3, it’s easy to become distracted by a wish list of features, making us forget about the Gen 1 and 2 marvels sitting in our garages.
We’ve hoped there would be a new Mazdaspeed 3 sooner than now, but the compensation of waiting is owning and driving Gen 2 (or Genjuan) Mazdaspeeds every day. Sure, we’re a little biased, but there’s a reason our lives are centered around Mazda performance enhancement. Maybe we’re just feeling nostalgic because it’s #ThrowbackThursday, but whatever the case, the Limited Slip Blog’s 2013 review of the last Mazdaspeed 3 reminds us: Even a few years old, these cars remain incredible.
We stumbled across this blog entry after finding that killer shot above, taken by cofounder Christopher Little. If it wasn’t clear from the entries that cover just about every car under the sun, it’s obvious just glancing at their photography that these guys have a passion for vehicles, something any self-respecting Mazdahead shares.
Chris had some issues with the interior—but noted the Gen 2 Mazdaspeed 3 had the best visibility of any hot hatch he’d driven. His description of the first time he actually drove the car probably sounds like what a lot of us experienced when we first got behind the wheel of a ‘speed. The word “intoxicating” stands out, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who understands Mazda power. The Mazdaspeed 3 makes it just about impossible to drive without experiencing some raw joy, which Chris did. We get it; that’s why we devote our lives to Mazda performance, to bring even more power out of these beauties.
The Mazdaspeed 3 has always been a stunning and, yeah, intoxicating ride. It’s been great for almost a decade, and with the new generation coming out soon, we don’t expect that legacy to change.
What sets the CorkSport FMIC piping apart from its predecessor and the competition? The secret is in the new piping design. Let’s start with the typical “pain points” associated with a FMIC kit. When going from the TMIC to the FMIC, you are adding a considerable amount of piping and volume between the turbo and the throttle body. Most people believe this causes “turbo lag” which is true, but not nearly to the extent that the internet wants you to believe.
There are two components to the charge air that are coming from the turbocharger: pressure and volume. There are also two components to the “turbo lag” everyone curses: pressure and throttle response. Pressure is easy to explain because it’s measurable, but volume and throttle response are a bit more difficult and very much related.
Imagine walking into your local convenience store to grab a big fountain drink and without thinking you grab the biggest straw you can find. You’re not going to use the coffee stir straws right? You would never be able to get enough soda to quench your thirst! Basically, your engine is dealing with the same issue until the pressure from the turbo makes its way through the FMIC piping. This is the importance of volume! So how does this relate to the CorkSport FMIC?
The Madaspeed FMIC piping takes volume to the next level for improved performance and drivability. Looking at Figure 2, you will notice that the last two 90-degree bends, just before the throttle body, are a bit larger in diameter than the rest of the piping. By increasing the diameter of the pipe directly in front of the throttle body, we create a large reservoir of cold air for the engine to suck in as soon as you roll into the throttle. Having this larger volume of air immediately available to the engine greatly improves drivability and throttle response because it fools the engine into thinking it has a larger intake plenum than it really does. The 3.00 inch section provides approximately 51 cubed inches of added volume over 2.50 inch piping, that’s an 18% increase.
Figure 2: CorkSport Cold Pipe with 3.00 Inch Section
On top of the added volume, the larger diameter piping improves the flow through the throttle body because the throttle body has a 2.75-inch inlet. You wouldn’t put a 2.5-inch turbo inlet pipe on a turbo that has a 3-inch inlet, would you? Nope, I didn’t think so. So why do that to your throttle body?
This can be seen in Figures 2 and 3 with the varying colors around and behind the throttle plate. The color graph shown with each image provides the air velocity for the different colors. In Figure 3, you can see there is more red and orange past the throttle plate when compared to Figure 2. The result of higher velocity flow is more turbulence which lowers efficiency through the throttle body.
Figure 3: Comparable CorkSport Cold Pipe with 2.50 Inch Section
So, if volume improves performance, then why isn’t the entire piping system 3 inches? At a certain point, more volume becomes a performance degrade. This falls back to the pressure and volume compromise. The more volume you have, the longer it takes to build pressure. Smaller diameter piping makes up the rest of the kit, so the turbo can pressurize the system quickly while the engine is using the extra volume sitting directly in front of the throttle body. By the time the extra volume is used up, the pressure has made it through the entire system. The combination of these two reduces turbo lag and improves throttle response. It’s safe to say that this is the best of both worlds.
But wait there’s more! Along with new piping, we are offering a large core kit with a crash bar. The crash bar retains all the necessary OEM hookup points for the radiator core support and the OEM tow point.
Figure 4: Assembled Large Core FMIC Kit with Crash Bar
Figure 4: Assembled Large Core FMIC Kit with Crash Bar: Under the Hood
The large core measures in at 23.25 inches wide, 11 inches tall, and 3 inches thick with 10mm runners for high thermal efficiency and a low-pressure drop through the core. Below, Figures 5 and 6 show the temperature and pressure drop of the small core tested with a K04 turbocharger at 15psi target.
Figure 5: Multiple runs testing the small core temperature drop with the K04 turbocharger targeting 15psi.
Figure 6: Single run testing the small core pressure drop with the K04 turbocharger targeting 15psi.
The hot side boost air temperatures can reach upward of 250 degrees Fahrenheit, but the intercooler stays at a cool 110 degrees or less. You can see the average cold side temperature is steadily increasing, but this is typical of any intercooler run after run. Combine that with an average maximum pressure drop of 0.6psi, and you have a very efficient intercooler.
