Tag: MazdaSpeed 3

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Flow Test Results – Mazdaspeed 3 FMIC for SRI vs Ram Air

We recently released our 2010 Mazdspeed 3 Front Mount Intercooler kit for Short Ram Intake and will be releasing our 2007-2009 Mazdaspeed 3 FMIC for SRI at the beginning of October. Since releasing the gen2 kit, we have had some questions about flow comparisons between the two FMIC kits we offer, the FMIC for Ram Air Kit and the FMIC for Short Ram Intake Kit.

We did flow testing on the stock air box, CorkSport Ram Air Box, and CorkSport Short Ram Intake to clarify the differences and benefits of both our Ram Air and SRI kit. In addition, we did flow testing on our CorkSport Turbo Inlet Pipe against a stock turbo inlet pipe so we could give you figures on just how big of a difference that will make as well.

Before going into the data let’s look at the obvious differences between the two kits. The ram air box has the obvious advantage of being able to draw in colder air in using the factory hood scoop. This is especially noticeable at speed as air is being forced into the air box, however the air path into the turbo inlet pipe isn’t as direct as it is with a short ram intake. This is where the short ram excels. It provides the most direct and shortest path for the air to flow from filter to the turbo inlet pipe. As we all know the path of least resistance is usually the best path, but it comes with a caveat. The short ram intake’s drawback is that it is pulling air straight from the engine bay, which in turbo cars can become quite hot. So even before looking at the flow data both of these setups have certain advantages over one another.

Flow Test Results

Test Result Comparisons without Turbo Inlet Pipe

We tested a stock air box, the CorkSport Ram Air Box, and the CorkSport Short Ram Intake, up to the turbo inlet pipe connections to get baseline results which indicated the following:

  • Coupled with the benefit of optimal placement by the factory hood scoop which results in reduced air temperatures, the ram air box showed a significant improvement in air flow with a result of 28.4% better than the stock air box.
  • The short ram intake flowed almost 50% better than a stock air box which is a substantial increase in air flow and will definitely make a difference in the power of your Speed3.

Test Result Comparison: Turbo Inlet Pipe Only

We also decided to flow test the stock turbo inlet pipe against the CorkSport Turbo Inlet Pipe. The CorkSport turbo inlet pipe showed a 14% improvement in flow over the stock turbo inlet pipe and the stock turbo inlet pipe proved to have a very turbulent airflow due to the restrictive shape of the pipe. So, not only are you getting more airflow but you are also getting smoother airflow.

Test Results with Turbo Inlet Pipe (the best simulation of real world performance)

For the final test, we hooked up the stock turbo inlet pipe to the stock air box and a CorkSport turbo inlet pipe to both the ram air box and short ram intake.

  • The CorkSport ram air box and turbo inlet pipe showed a 40% increase over the stock air box and stock turbo inlet pipe. This is a big jump and shows just how restrictive the stock intake assembly can be!
  • The CorkSport short ram intake and turbo inlet pipe flowed 54% better than the stock air box and stock turbo inlet pipe. This is an incredible performance gain and will definitely make a noticable improvement in your car’s performance.

In conclusion, the SRI will provide better air volume flow, but with higher intake temperatures than the ram air box. No matter which way you decide to go with your Speed3 modification, the CorkSport FMIC kit for SRI or the CorkSport FMIC kit for Ram Air Box, will be a huge improvement over stock and either kit will provide you with more than enough power to give you a grin on your face that will match the front of your 3.

Andrew-

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500hp MS3, Flames, Friends and Mazda Fanatics! MazdasNW End of Summer Bash

Hosted by CorkSport, the MazdasNW End of Summer Bash held this last Saturday was an event I have been looking forward to attending since the beginning of the summer.

Promoted by MazdasNW, CorkSport and NWMotiv, the event turned out to be one of the biggest exclusively Mazda shows in the NW this summer. It featured a day of dyno’s, show and shine, BBQ and raffle. Mazda enthusiasts from as far away as California and British Columbia came to our Vancouver WA location for this one day event.

Though the day started out slightly overcast, we lucked out with a the sun breaking through in the early afternoon for some of the last 80 degree weather we will likely see in the NW until next year. People began to arrive around 9am and the event kicked into gear at 10 with over 95 pre-registered attendees and 55 cars registered for the show and shine.

This year’s show and shine included some more non-traditional car show classes such as lowest horsepower, dirtiest car and most wheel gap, along with some more traditional classes such as highest horsepower, best display, and best engine bay.

NWMotiv also handed out an award for best looking ride that went to CJ Ramos and his CorkSport sponsored Mazdaspeed 3 which will be featured in an upcoming post at nwmotiv.com.

The dyno saw a lot of action during the show. Some of the highlights included:

A Gen 1 Mazdaspeed 3 that made 517hp on the dyno. Rumor has it, it is the “The World’s First 500hp Mazdaspeed 3” :

A 3rd gen RX7 that made 611hp, though as it turns out sported a 2jz engine

And an RX-8 with CorkSport exhaust and racepipe that blew flames on two of the three of the dyno pulls!

CorkSport also sponsored a raffle for the event whos proceeds we would like to donate to our good friends at MazdasNW as a token of our thanks for their continued support of CorkSport Performance.

Thanks to all of the CorkSport and MazdasNW fans who attended Saturday’s event. We look forward to next years event being even bigger and better!

Gwynne-

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CorkSport 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 – The Tireless Worker

CorkSport currently develops parts to support 22 Mazda models and at times one of the trickiest parts of designing parts for all of these cars is finding a car to use during the development process.

Occasionally it can be hard to source a car and find someone who is willing to let you start cutting on their brand new car, which is why it is so great to have our 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 at the shop to use for product development.

Many of you have seen pictures of the CorkSport Mazdaspeed 3 and say how great it looks, but little do you know that it’s a true workhorse.

In the past few months I have seen more parts go on and come back off of this car than I ever would have guessed. Hardly a day goes by when something is not being done to it to further development of our Mazdaspeed 3 line. In the past couple weeks alone it has had three different exhaust combinations on it and at one point even had a TMIC on it for a day while the FMIC piping was still installed but disconnected.

One of the great parts of being an engineer for CorkSport is not spending all day sitting at a desk. I’m able to get out and actually work on a car, put it on the lift, prototype parts, test fit samples, and get some actual real world testing on our new parts. This allows us to develop top of the line parts that have been thoroughly tested in real world environments on a shortened development schedule because we don’t have to develop, send parts out to identified R&D cars, wait for feedback, then tweak the design and start the process all over again. Being able to just walk out into the shop to look at something or install a prototype for testing is great. We can get immediate results so we can get the product out to you, the customer sooner.

We recently released our Front Mount Intercooler Kit for Short Ram Intake and some of you with large power aspirations had questions about the fitment of a larger intercooler. The kit we released with the 24x 6x 3.5″ does not require you to remove the crash bar and in order to accommodate a larger intercooler, removal of the crash bar is necessary. Having our shop car not too far from my desk, I was able to go out and fit a larger intercooler onto the speed 3, prototype some brackets, test and then adjust the design to accommodate the larger intercooler core in just over a month. We now have an option for those of you that want to upgrade your turbo and run a CorkSport FMIC for SRI. The new larger intercooler core is 24x 11x 3” and can support up to 700hp.

Having the car here also means we get to drive it and experience how new parts will act in the real world. We can find out how it handles in stop and go traffic, how comfortable it is on the freeway, and how it looks driving down the road. A couple days this week I was able to drive the car to and from work and I can definitely say that even with all of the performance parts installed, the car is still a great daily driver.

I must say having a car like the CorkSport 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 available to use as a development tool really helps us create the best possible product for CorkSport customers.

Andrew-

Current List of Performance and Accessory Parts on the CorkSport 2010 Mazdaspeed 3

Engine and Drivetrain
CorkSport Short Ram Intake
CorkSport FMIC for SRI Kit
CorkSport Cat Back Exhaust
CorkSport Racepipe
Corksport Motor Mount Inserts
CorkSport Lightweight Crankshaft Pulley
CorkSport Silicone Radiator Hose Set
CorkSport Aluminum Skidplate

Suspension and Wheels
CorkSport Adjustable Rear Swaybar
CorkSport Front Swaybar
CorkSport Lowering Springs
CorkSport Trunk brace set

Interior/Exterior Styling
CorkSport LED Light Kit
CorkSport Stub Antenna
CorkSport License Plate Frame
CorkSport Mud Flaps
J-Spec LED Tail Lights
AutoExe Front Bumper
Advan RZ 19×8.5 wheels
Yokohama S-drive 235/35/19 tires

In Prototype
CorkSport Shifter Base Bushings
CorkSport Front Adjustable End Links
CorkSport Oil Catch Can
CorkSport Camber Plates

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Product Sneak Peek – CorkSport Fall Line-Up

I attended my first research and development meeting at CorkSport a couple weeks ago and spent the morning and well into the afternoon reviewing product submissions and discussing the viability and potential demand for each of the ideas that were submitted to us.

We reviewed over forty-five product submissions and ranked them on feasibility, development time, demand, and the value it would provide to our customers. Coming out of that meeting, I think customers will be pleased with some of the fantastic products coming to market over the next six months and though we are keeping our cards close to our chest on some of the exciting products we have in store for all you Mazda performance enthusiasts, I will divulge some the new products you can expect to see released in the coming weeks.

Lug Nuts – As early as next week, you can expect to see new CorkSport Extended Lightweight Lug Nuts added to our list of performance accessories. Thanks to the feedback from our Facebook Fans, we will be offering them in black as the overwhelming color of choice. More to come on this product soon!

Shifter Bushings – Coming up before months end will be the CorkSport Shifter Bushings. Removing unwanted play in your car’s shifter mechanism, our bushing kit will greatly improve the feel of shifting in your vehicle.

Gen 1 Mazdaspeed 3 FMIC kit for SRI – Expanding on the success of our recent Gen 2 Mazdaspeed 3 release of a FMIC kit for SRI, CorkSport will be releasing a version for Gen 1 Mazdaspeed 3 drivers by the end of the month! Like our Gen 2 version, the FMIC kit for SRI will provide solid power gains without the lag commonly seen in larger FMIC kit’s that require removal of the crash bar.

Mazdaspeed 6 Rear Sway Bar – Currently on a fall release schedule, the CorkSport Mazdaspeed 6 Rear Sway Bar will greatly improve handling by tightening up the rear suspension. The Rear Sway bar can be purchased stand alone or can be used to compliment the CorkSport Mazdaspeed 6 Front Strut Bar.

CorkSport LED Under Hood Lights – Also on the fall release schedule is a kit that will illuminate your entire engine compartment. The CorkSport LED Under Hood Lights are a low power draw kit that will attach to your battery, includes an automatic on/off switch and will cast a cool blue/white luminescence on your engine bay.

These represent just some of the products you can expect to see in CorkSport’s fall line-up. More will be introduced as the development and testing process winds-up.

Interested in submitting a product idea? Fill out a product idea form for consideration at our next development meeting, https://www.corksport.com/product-ideas.html

Gwynne-

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Making Your Mazdaspeed3 Handle

In my last year of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah, I was able to participate in the Formula SAE program. The concept behind Formula SAE is that a fictional manufacturing company has contracted a student design team to develop a small Formula-style race car. Then the prototype race car is to be evaluated for its potential as a production item. When deciding what team I wanted to be on I chose suspension because I knew the real trick in making a fast car is designing a great performing suspension and tuning it to perfection.

In the formula SAE program, the suspension is unrestricted except for safety regulations. Most teams opt for four-wheel independent suspension and almost universally a double-wishbone. Active suspension is legal. Unfortunately, most of us can’t design a one-off suspension for our everyday cars, but we have the ability to upgrade and tune our suspensions to achieve handling nirvana.

The Mazdaspeed3 is a great platform to tune on for power and handling, however, it is a heavier front-wheel drive (FWD) vehicle and some measures need to be taken to minimize understeering. If you are not familiar with understeering, it is when the car doesn’t want to turn as much as you are telling it too. Many of you may have experienced this in other FWD vehicles over the years and know that this tends to be a universal problem. Actually, most production cars are designed to understeer from the factory for safety reasons, but it is especially prevalent in FWD cars. With a few tricks, you can make your car handle much better and minimize unwanted understeer.

Mazdaspeed 3 Rear Sway Bar

The first step to achieving a great performing suspension is upgrading the rear sway bar. The CorkSport Rear Sway Bar is adjustable to help you tune your car to your driving style. By installing a stiffer rear sway bar, the car will want to lose traction in the rear first instead of the front, reducing understeer. If you go stiff enough, the car will begin to oversteer in hard corners, so we recommend starting in the outer-most position with our Rear Sway Bar. If the car feels like it’s still understeering, move the end link to a stiffer setting. If you feel like the car is oversteering too easily, move the end link to a softer position.

Mazdaspeed 3 Front Sway Bar blue and black

For the next step, the CorkSport Front Sway Bar would be a good path. Anti-Sway Bars do more than just keep the car from rolling side-to-side when cornering; they help with the weight transfer of the vehicle during a turn. Normally most of the vehicle weight wants to transfer to the outside tires, but a stiffer sway bar helps weight transfer more evenly, which means the outside tires won’t lose traction as easily. The reduced roll of the vehicle can also help increase driver confidence by improving the cornering potential of the vehicle.

With stiffer sway bars, more of the suspension load is transferred into the chassis. To combat this, extra bracing is helpful to keep the chassis rigid. CorkSport produces a great 1-Piece Front Strut Tower Bar that helps transfer the loads from the struts onto the car more evenly between the strut towers.

Mazdaspeed Front Strut Tower Bar

The CorkSport Rear Chassis Brace Set also reduces rear chassis flex by 15% which can help the stiffer sway bar in the rear by putting more force on the chassis. If you don’t want the full set you can also just get the Rear Chassis Brace that ties together the rear shock towers which will still help out greatly or you can get a CorkSport Chassis Brace to replace the stock chassis brace underneath the car which will increase the stiffness of the chassis between the Mazdaspeed 3 front and rear suspensions.

Once you have gotten to this point your chassis is well braced and your sway bars have reduced the weight transfer during cornering, but there are still a couple more things you can do. CorkSport’s newly released Lowering Springs will lower your car’s center of gravity and increase the spring rate over your stock springs. This provides a stiffer ride that will increase the handling performance of your car while still being great for the street. Not only do they add to the handling of the car, but they will also improve the look by giving your car a more aggressive stance and decreasing the gap between your wheels and fenders. Be careful not to over-lower your vehicle. While it looks good, it can negatively affect the suspension geometry by throwing off the roll center of the vehicle. The CorkSport Lowering Springs decreases the ride of your vehicle to achieve a great look while maintaining the geometry of the suspension.

After springs, upgrading the dampers would be the next suspension improvement I would recommend. CorkSport sells Coilovers for the Mazdaspeed3.  These will replace your factory front struts and rear shocks and give you an adjustable rebound to help dial in your Mazda’s ride.

In this post, I have laid out a great path to making your Speed3 handle even more brilliantly than it already does, but remember, for those of you who autocross, check your rule book to see if any of these upgrades will force you to change to a faster class.

If you have any questions about these products please feel free to gives us a call or shoot us an email, we are more than happy to talk to you. Thank you for supporting CorkSport.

CorkSport

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