Tag: MazdaSpeed 3

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SEMA 2010

I had three 3 days to take in SEMA this year. I estimate that I probably I walked around 40 miles (it felt that way by Thursday afternoon at least). The aisles were busier this year with people and exhibitors when compared to 2009. The most common vehicles shown at SEMA were Camaros and Mustangs, new and old, tons of them everywhere.

The vehicle which I think had the strongest showing besides the usual muscle cars was the Ford Fiesta. I saw at least 15 or these cars which had been modified in one way or another with various themes. I expect to see more and more of these on the road over the next few years. Most of the themes shown on the Fiesta were more lifestyle oriented over sheer performance. Ford did have some trick rally ready parts available for the Fiesta if you wanted to go off road your car.

One car I expected to see more of was the Chevy Volt. I saw only one, and that was in the Chevy booth. For a car which GM has been touting for 3 years you would expect a few pre-production cars to be seen around the show. My thought is they are pulling another GM move and it will be several more years until they finally get the car into production. The car looks great in person even though I would never own one.

Weird item of the show was the Green Hornet car for the upcoming movie. The car was in the Royal Purple booth. It made for an odd combo of missiles, machine guns and lubricants.

I was disappointed this year though with the showing of Mazdas, I was expecting more. There was not one Mazdaspeed 3 or any other Mazdaspeed Mazda at the show. There were two nice Mazda 3s in the Mazdaspeed booth, one time attack car which started life as a world challenge car and a great concept vehicle turbocharged Mazda 3 sedan which was also shown at last years SEMA show.

Also shown in the Mazdaspeed booth was a Rolex 24 hour winning RX8 with a devious body scheme. The left side and the rear was the FXDD car and the other side of the car was in the Castrol Dark Grey.

There were four Mazda 2s at the show. Two were in the Mazda booth, one in the H&R suspension booth and the 4th in the booth across from the Mazdaspeed booth. All of the Mazda 2s at the show were equipped with European bumpers and two had the European market lighting. The lip kits on several of the cars are designed for the euro bumpers so they do not work with North American market vehicles but they do look good. I spoke with the company who produced the kits and they are working on them for North American cars. The roll cage and race car prep on the grey Mazda 2 was done by AWR racing out of California and it looked good. It makes me want to tear out the interior of my car and go racing.

If I was to compare the show overall to last year it was better. There were plenty of new ideas, great looking cars, and people to meet with all week. Maybe next year we can see more Mazdas at the show.

– Derrick

If you are looking for more pictures of cars from the SEMA show check out the CorkSport Facebook page.

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Engine Protection? CorkSport’s Got it Covered

Being one of the product development engineers here, I have seen many ideas submitted by customers. Some crazy, some very practical, some impossible and some of them eventually grow to become a part that we produce and sell. I have never seen more people interested and dedicated to any other submitted idea than a skidplate built specifically for their 3. Being that this is not something we typically sell, we thought, why not.

You wanted a larger opening for oil filter changes? Done. A one-piece aluminum design mounted to the sub-frame that won’t flop around in the wind? Whammy. More ground clearance? Shazam. An undertray that will protect against the elements better than the stock plastic one? You got it. (The lowest part of the skidplate is directly mounted to the sub-frame via two M12 and two M14 bolts to factory threaded holes.). Finally, something that won’t rip off when you reverse out of your parking spot in a foot of snow? Check.

The result of your input is the product below. A piece that reminds me of the many winters in Minnesota and the UP of Michigan where I would have loved to have had this on my car.

– Jake

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“By the People, For the People”

It’s not just an excerpt from the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln, but also how we try to produce new products. Let’s face it, if a part is not something that you want, you don’t buy it. So what is the easiest way to produce parts that customers want? Have the customer tell you.

CorkSport has always tried to make sure the customer is our number one priority. We don’t just say that, but we try to show it in how we run the business as well as in our products. We have recently released two products that were part of our customer collaboration efforts. The first of which is our license plate relocation bracket for the 2010 MazdaSpeed 3. We collected ideas from customers, made prototypes, received feedback, revised the part, and repeated the process until we reached a product that was built by CorkSport, but designed and made possible by you the customer.

The next product that we have just released within the past month is eyelids for the 2010 Mazda 3 / MazdaSpeed 3. A customer (Derrick Williams) designed and made a prototype of the eyelids. He then contacted us to see if we wanted to partner with him to get these produced for sale as a CorkSport product, but not to lose sight of who originally designed and made these. After some slight tweaks and a few sample parts later, we released the part for sale. The design and idea was such a success that we immediately sold out of the first batch.

Due to the eyelids being so popular, we came back to you the customer to see if there was anything we could do to improve the product. Several people said that they would like to see the part made in carbon fiber as well. The picture below shows the first prototype set made from carbon fiber and clear coated.

These are just a few examples of how we never forget who makes us who we are: the customer. If you have any ideas for new products, or ways to enhance existing parts, feel free to contact us.

– Jake

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The Elusive MazdaSpeed 3 Cold Air Box Has Arrived!

People have been hitting us up via every contact point possible: phone calls, emailing, Facebook posting, Forum chatting, and contacting us via our webpage to find out when the CorkSport Cold Air Box for the 2010 MazdaSpeed 3 Short Ram Intake will be available. I am proud to say that it is finally here.

Way back all the way to the beginning of February, we had a blog post outlining the details of the depth we go into when designing a Cold Air Box. After finalizing the design and getting a production part installed in our project car, I went out and did some extensive testing. Using a laptop, data-logging software, and lots of thermocouples, I was able to log temperature changes over time.

The delta temperature in the graph below is the temperature difference inside the CAB (right at the filter) versus the temperature directly outside the box (inside the engine bay). The red line shows the difference over time using the box right off the shelf. The blue line shows the CAB with fully taped and insulated connections (the SRI to CAB mating area) attempting to reduce heat soak even further. The green line shows the difference over time with the CAB fully insulated and a direct pipe running from the fog light opening to the CAB (simulating a CAI).

Each reading was taking in the same atmospheric temperature (+/- 2 degrees) driving the same route at the same time each day. The route consisted of highway driving (both at highway speeds, and stop and go traffic) as well as city driving.

As you can see from the graph, all 3 designs yielded roughly the same result of about a 35-40 degree decrease in intake temperature once the vehicle has reached operating temperature.

As a conclusion to this experiment, I can confidently say that our CAB for the 2010 MazdaSpeed 3 paired with our SRI can bring your intake temperatures down to the same temperature as you would see with a cold air intake, without the drop in pressure or any worry about driving in the rain.

As always, if you have any questions about the product, or if you want to know more about how the data was obtained or evaluated, shoot me an email.

– Jake

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CorkSport’s 2010 MS3 Gets Chill

Our 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 project car is always a work in progress. It rarely gets put all the way back together, and when it finally does, another project gets set to take it apart again. This time, it was to get some cooler air flowing to the lungs of the MS3.

We recently installed our prototype front mount intercooler kit on our 2010 Mazdaspeed 3. After dealing with a new bumper, hood scoop, and other changes from the 1st gen MS3 to the current body style, we finally have a working kit. As it is currently installed, this is a bolt-on kit with no drilling or cutting required. The factory undertray and bumper also mount back on with room to spare.

We are currently in the testing phase and hope to have a final design set soon. If you have any input on what you would like to see (ie, silicone colors, piping powdercoat colors, etc) send me an email.

– Jake