Tag: MazdaSpeed 3

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Update on Product Development

We have some good things brewing here at CorkSport in the product development arena. We’re working on the release of some new products that are currently in our development pipeline. Below are a few products that we’ll be releasing soon as well as a snapshot of our current approved projects that are in the works. If you don’t have your favorite project listed on here, we may still be working on it, but if there is something you’d like to see, feel free to email us: griffith@corksport.com.

2010 Mazda3 / Mazdaspeed3 License Plate Relocation Bracket

Using the factory tow hook mounting boss and a CNC machined, black anodized billet aluminum backing plate complete with a ghosted CorkSport ‘CS’ logo, this license plate relocation bracket allows you to avoid being hassled by Johnny Law while not blocking the flow of your radiator or front mount intercooler. Offset to the driver side with a factory fascia contouring angle, these brackets are the nicest on the market with a simple yet effective design that even looks nice if you’ve got the plate off of the car.

Have comments and questions about this product? Feel free to email me at griffith@corksport.com for further input. One customer we have (who at this time of press hasn’t answered my email asking to use his name -which I would love to) had an excellent suggestion to provide a replacement cover for the tow hook access panel, and we’re already working with our composites shop to dial something in as an added option to the package.

Look forward to this product coming near the end of the month. Photos below show initial design using ‘AXELA’ license plate to demonstrate assembly. No more rotation of your plate frame. Integrated threaded bosses in the 1/4″ thick backing plate for an easy two handed installation. Two piece billet design allows potential to swap out for JDM or European backing plates in the future.

Want to throw in your 2 cents toward future upgrades and revisions to the product? Leave us your comments in this quick online product development survey.

2004-2009 Mazda3 2.3l Power Series Short Ram Intake System

We have had a lot of success lately with our configurable intake systems for the 2010 Mazda3 and 2007-2010 MZR 2.3 DISI powered MS3, MS6 and CX-7 and we have our customers to thank for that. With all of the added buzz around our intakes, a number of 1st Gen MZ3 as well as MZ6 owners have asked about a Power Series Intake for their vehicles. So we prototyped a new silicone coupler design that interfaces well with the MZ3 and MZ6 vehicles, clearing the battery box vent in the MZ3 and providing additional hood clearance in the MZ6.

So far we’re on the cusp of being able to release the 1st Gen MZ3 systems -probably around the end of the month. I’ll be testing out the system on a 1st Gen MZ6 this week thanks to one of our local friends who has been a customer of ours for years of Mazda ownership.

We are still looking for a 2010 MZ6 in the PDX/Vancouver, WA area as our last contact for a rental car has come up short in the last few weeks and we’re really eager to get the development finished on that product and get it to market. So if you’ve got a 2010 MZ6 and are in the market for a short ram intake, drop me an email at griffith@corksport.com and we’ll get it hooked up for you.

2010 Mazdaspeed3 Cat Back Exhaust.

We just finished some revisions to production testing for the CatBack Exhuast on the shop’s 2010 Mazdaspeed3 and will have those available in early May. Dual 90mm tailpipes finish off a twin resonated system with full 3″ straight through exhaust for maximum performance and our signature aggressive sound.

2010 Mazdaspeed3 Front Mount Intercooler

We’re finishing up the test fit of our 2010 Mazdaspeed3 FMIC this week and then doing some dyno pulls to catalog the results. We are also revising the configurations of our FMIC, offering a bare bones FMIC kit at an aggressive price point, FMIC with Top-Mount Ram Airbox, as well as options for full anodizing of the entire system and optional inclusion of the ATP Boost Cut Killer that was included with all of our previous intercoolers (as anyone with a FMIC and TurboBack Exhaust can tell you, this addition is usually the item that pushes you right up to the point of boost cut, and being able to run that additional couple of PSI adds up to a lot of power, especially when you throw a tune on the vehicle for a good margin of safety.

2010 MS3 Cold Air Box

We’ve got this charted for June 2010, had to do a few updates to the design in an attempt to clear HKS SSQV BOV’s. Just finishing up the redesign and should be able to make a mold shortly thereafter.

FC RX-7 S4 & S5 CorkSport Silicone Radiator Hoses

Multi-layer silicone coolant hoses withstand immense pressures and seal superbly. Add a set of four T-Bolt Band clamps and you’re ensured the best performance. With a black outside and a blue flourosilicone liner, these lines won’t burst under pressure and they won’t burst your bank account either.

There’s my update for now. We’ve got a couple more things coming down the pipe, but these are the furthest along.

I’ll keep you all updated!

– Jason

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Taking it to the Track

It’s easy to lose sight of ‘Performance’ during the daily grind of developing and selling performance parts. This means different things to different people, I understand. To Travis (Shipping) and Chris (Sales) this means getting involved in Autocross/Solo. Both of them are new to this form of motorsports, but both are veterans of sanctioned drag racing. How will that translate to quick turns on asphalt parking lots? Stay tuned during the upcoming season to find out. Or even better, get involved and join us!

Below is their planned schedule. They decided to take turns running a 2007 Mazdaspeed3 loaded with CS parts.

Oregon SCCA where you can get on the race track, autocross or rallycross

Practice Day Saturday, March 27th – PIR North Paddock
Event #1 Sunday, March 28th – PIR North Paddock, $25
Novice School Saturday, April 24th- PIR South Paddock (Pre-registration is required.), $50.
Event #2 Sunday, April 25th- PIR South Paddock, $25
Intermediate School Saturday, June 12th, Packwood, WA (Pre-registration is required)
Event #3 Sunday, June 13th – Packwood, WA, $25
Event #4 Saturday, July 10th – Packwood, WA, $25
Event #5 Sunday, July 11th, – Packwood, WA, $25
Event #6 Saturday, August 21st – Packwood, WA, $25
Event #7 Sunday, August 22nd – Packwood, WA, $25
Event #8 Saturday, September 18th – PIR South Paddock, $25
Event #9 Sunday, September 19th – PIR South Paddock, $25

The plan is to make each PIR event, the novice school and at least 1 Packwood weekend event. The car will likely be classed in DSP, details still to be worked out.

We’ll post a blog introducing the car, Travis & Chris, and progress so far after their first event later this month.

Do any of you guys autocross your cars? Let us know what you think.

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2010 MS3 Cold Air Box Prototype Testing

Just got done doing the initial testing on our prototype cold air box for the 2010 MS3. We put a box together that is a bit different from our existing boxes on the previous generation vehicles.

Previously, we closed out the entire front corner of the engine compartment with the box. With the 2010, the fuse block is in that vicinity and there’s a large wiring harness that crosses over the boundary region where we profiled for the box edge. We were also curious to see if we could build an efficient box that would allow our customers to retain access to the headlight assembly and fuse block for quick bulb and fuse changes.

We’ve done three extended runs on the 2010 MS3 with Cold Air Box and come to some interesting conclusions. In previous tests on the MS3 and MS6, we found that the dynamic pressure zones under the hood of the vehicle can be counter-intuitive as to the areas that provide cold air and/or allow ingress of hot underhood air into the filter.

The first run with a box that had multiple areas of access to the hot zones in the engine compartment was surprisingly successful. On a 51F day, we hit a 40+ degree max differential between underhood (immediately outside the box) and filter surface temperatures. Not bad! On the hotter days (86F) this summer when we were running the tests on our MS6 we hit around 35 degrees max thermal delta.

The next test we performed was with a number of the holes and reliefs in the box (clearance around the silicone coupler, closeout to the headlight assembly and a clearance hole for the recirculation valve) shored up and sealed off, we took the car out for another run this morning (waiting specifically until the outside air temp hit 51 again). We were hoping to get to ambient air temperature, which would have been a 60 degree temperature differential. Just like the MS6 tests last year, we got close, but stopped short at 5 degrees above ambient for a maximum in the box to out of the box temperature differential of 51 degrees F.

Wanting to see that 5F disappear, we went berserk and busted out our mad Scotch packing tape fabrication skills and sealed the entire box off to body and inner fenderwell. Absolutely no change. Which was honestly a relief. The simpler we are able to make the design, the more margin we have to spend on the aesthetic design and provide our customers with design that looks as seamless as possible with the factory underhood environment. Justin did a great job with the initial mockup, matching the contour of the factory intercooler cover, but we’ve got a ways to go. Next step is to pull the box out, bust out the bondo and shaping tools to fine tune the look and feel of the box. Meanwhile I’ll be chucking some delrin up in the lathe to knock out some fittings and fasteners as well as fabricating some finished brackets to ensure a solid fit with the OEM airbox grommets, battery box and radiator crossmember.

Finally, I need to make some phone calls and get some quotes on a pre-preg Carbon Fiber lid as well as a Dry Carbon lid. We’d love to make this a reality, but the numbers confirm or deny the reality of that option.

I know you’ve all waited a long time for this and it’s been for good reason -we want to raise the bar with this design and we’re excited to make it a reality.

– Jason

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New Chassis Brace Designs!

About a month or so back, John and I decided to take on a new project. We managed to stuff 4 different chassis braces in the hatch of our 2010 Speed3…simultaneously. We have since had some time to test the various mount points back there to see where the best solutions would be provided. Our goal is to deliver a few different bars that can be mixed and matched and then deliver a secondary stage that will tie the primary bars together.

With that in mind, we know you love your trunk space and functionality on your hatchbacks and pass-through options on your sedans… So we have some tricks up our sleeve to make sure that your significant others will still be able to take a boosted trip to IKEA without complaining about the birdcage in the trunk getting in the way of that NORDANÖ Armchair and VÄRDE Kitchen Cabinet.

Since our initial investment into the design of these systems and testing of them, we have come up with a few conclusions that have lead to some development of a final product that we’re hoping to have out in the next month or two. We looked at a number of elements of the design: bar material for optimal structural integrity, options for quick disconnects that provide solid mounting points and finally -the look that matches our existing products for the 2010 vehicles.

In order to do this, we wiped the drawing board clean and started with a 1″ solid aluminum section of bar stock, black anodized with a laser etched CorkSport logo. We then evaluated the bracketing systems and methods of making solid, quick disconnect systems that will prevent chassis flex, yet provide our customers the ease of removal on the fly. I used to work in Aircraft, and whenever we wanted to make systems quickly removable we would use aircraft seat track systems with quick latching lugs and push-button quick release pins that are reliable and can handle a substantial load.

In order to accommodate these features, our designs require a higher level of accuracy and tolerance control than we are afforded with our welded style one-piece bars. Which means the brackets and the endlinks have to adhere to a high accuracy in their diameter and their overall thickness so that the grip length of the quick release pins will hold the system together accurately.

Mind you, using hardware like this to provide the best options to our customers are not by any means inexpensive. But that forces us to use all of the tools we have to minimize the cost of our designs simply through their manufacturability and through the process of minimizing part counts and simplifying design and build processes.

What we end up with are chassis braces that you can disconnect on the fly without any specialized tools. We’re still working on ways to make the integration of these systems appear as though they were factory solutions, because we know when you pop the hatch on your brand new Mazda3 or Mazdaspeed3, your friends and coworkers don’t expect to see your carpet and interior panels hacked up with a load of scaffolding occupying what should be usable trunk space….

The best part is that from the exterior of the vehicle, to the under-hood to the hatch and interior, you’ll find a consistent product line that expresses a level of quality commensurate with your 2010 Mazda. We look forward to sharing some of our other new designs in the near future. And we can’t wait to discuss some new ideas and directions with you. Keep in touch with us if you have any comments or ideas about product development or the direction we are taking with our designs.

– Jason

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2010 MazdaSpeed 3 Downpipe Update

We have had some interesting times with the development of our downpipe for the 2010 Mazdaspeed3. Downpipes on the 1st Gen MS3 have historically been a bit of a puzzle to work around the dynamics of the factory computer’s expectations for what should be seen at the two oxygen sensors on the upstream and downstream side of the factory catalyst. From our research, customer feedback and experience, our designs are able to avoid throwing a check engine light on first generation DISI equipped vehicles. Other manufacturers of downpipes are hit and miss depending on the manufacturer, with some throwing the occasional random CEL for slow response time and others being more pervasive.

The 2010 model is more finicky. Initially, we faced some check engine lights resulting from the vehicle not seeing what it expected at the secondary oxygen sensor, but we made some adjustments to the O2 sensor and have thus far run our test car for ~30 warmup cycles without any sign of a CEL. The 2010 Mazdaspeed3 runs a different algorithm than the 2007-2009 models and this results in a little less tolerance to radical changes in downpipe design.

That being said, the codes we initially were getting were based on a slow response time of the O2 sensor -a code that one of our local customers was getting on his bone stock 2010. We have had our downpipe on the car for nearly three months now. We’re proceeding with caution and planning on getting a handful of downpipes out into the public on a limited release to test the waters and ensure that the design will be free of any CEL activity for all of our customers and not just the single test case of our shop 2010.

If you’ve been chomping at the bit to get ahold of our downpipe, drop Derrick an email or call us at 360-260-2675 and we’ll get one out to you. We would also be very interested in getting one of these out to someone in our local area with an otherwise stock vehicle so that we can do some before/after dyno testing. We’ve done the staged dyno on our 2010, now we’d like to do a run with the downpipe to see how well it performs on its own.

– Jason