Tag: R&D

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Staged Dyno Results for 2010 MazdaSpeed3

We have received a lot of questions regarding the dyno numbers for our products for the 2010 Speed3. So far we’ve only released a Stock vs. (Intake+RacePipe) dyno sheet, and I figured it was time to add some clarity to the questions and comments in a centralized location instead of replying on specific forums and leaving other people in the dark. In the end, our Intake + Racepipe + Downpipe give customers the ability to crank out 51 more horsepower for $687. The key to getting the most out of your car isn’t just to make ample power increases, but to have money left in your wallet to add more options sooner. CorkSport has you covered at a cost of $13.74/hp with a peak gain of 51 Wheel Horsepower and 47 Ft Lb of Torque.

The 2010 Speed3 has a lot of power left on the table, and our product development has really brought that to light. Unfortunately, we stage build everything -starting with an Intake, adding a RacePipe, then the DownPipe…and Dyno and labor hours add cost to parts, so we try our best to get the data we need to validate our products without adding a lot of cost to the parts based on a variety of test iterations and combinations. This blog post details the results of the staged build on our 2010 Speed3. In addition, it makes some details clear about comparing our systems to other options on the market -what’s included in intake and downpipe packages to provide detail to costs vs. gains.

Stock vs. Power Series Intake System
Our $239 intake system includes our aluminum turbo inlet pipe, billet MAF housing and CorkSport Dry Flow Air Filter. Again, this package includes the turbo inlet pipe -it is the only system on the market that is packaged including the inlet pipe -all others are marketed separately. The torque gains were nearly 20ft lbs increase on average. We also saw large sections of torque gain that were up to 33ft lbs of torque. The horsepower gains were equally impressive with the largest differential being a 36whp gain over the stock numbers. Our system works great, we have put a lot of time into the design and validation testing of it and it generates some serious power…at $6.63 per horse at the wheels.

Racepipes and Downpipes…*
The CorkSport TurboBack Exhaust packages are broken into three components: The Downpipe which evacuates exhaust gasses from the turbocharger into the main exhaust system; The Racepipe (available with or without high flow catalytic converter) which replaces the factory secondary restrictive catalytic converter; The CatBack Exhaust System which is comprised of the primary 80mm (3.15″) exhaust pipe and resonators and the dual 80mm tailpipe section. The main component to discuss is the comparison of the CorkSport Downpipe and Racepipe to other Downpipes on the market. A few other Downpipes cost substantially more -due partially to the fact that they include what we sell as a Racepipe. Despite our separate packaging, our pricing is still competitive at $448 for the combined package, and allow our customers to swap in the wide open 80mm Racepipe on track days and retain their factory catalytic converters or choose the Racepipe which features a high flow spun metallic catalytic converter (an additional $200). Whether you choose the Downpipe/Racepipe combination with or without a high flow catalyst, you’ll find our prices aggressively competitive.

Stock vs. Power Series Intake System + Power Series Stock Fitment Racepipe
This stage adds the Power Series RacePipe to the 2010 Speed3 w/ CorkSport Short Ram Intake & Turbo Inlet Pipe. Power goes up nicely to a combined gain of 41whp and 33ft lb of torque at peak and a blistering 50ft lb of torque at 3000rpm. Where the intake alone dropped low end (1600-2900RPM) torque by a few pound feet relative to stock, the addition of the racepipe puts the entire torque curve higher than that of the stock setup. If you’re running a rally car or just want blistering torque -this is your prime combination.

Stock vs. CorkSport Intake + Racepipe + Downpipe
This stage adds the Power Series Downpipe from CorkSport to the 2010 Speed3 w/ Short Ram Intake & Turbo Inlet Pipe. The CorkSport downpipe features a divorced wastegate dump design -providing a separate outlet for wastegate gasses and avoiding disruption of the primary exhaust pathway when the wastegate cracks open to bypass excess exhaust pressure past the turbine wheel. Adding the downpipe to the previously detailed combination of intake and racepipe, power jumps another 10 horse at the cost of a little bit of peak torque, but the low end of the torque curve increases nicely. As a combined package, the CorkSport Intake, Racepipe and Downpipe put down 51 horsepower and 47 pound feet of torque at the wheels. Watch for the release of our downpipe for the 2010 Speed3 in the coming weeks.

– Jason

* Consult with your local governing body regarding the legality of removal of a factory catalytic converter, whether it is for track or for street use and whether you are using the full race open pipe or a high flow catalyst. High Flow Performance Catalystsare ILLEGAL in the State of California, and will NOT be sold into California.

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Mazda Intake System Design: Part 1

photos of short ram intakes for Mazdas



In the last few months, we’ve invested a good amount of time into working on making our intake systems more modular. The benefit to our customers is that we’re dialing in the building blocks to roll out a number of new intakes that will backfill our inventory for vehicles that we haven’t supported with induction systems. At the same time, having modular systems allow us to get better material pricing, and invest less in mill and lathe setup times by using like parts across multiple make and model product lines. We have also sourced custom filters from one of the top domestic performance air filter manufacturers and we’re very excited about cultivating that relationship.

As our intake product line becomes more modular, we become more able to tailor our intakes to our customer’s interests and styles as well. With our new anodized MAF housings and custom CorkSport synthetic media air filters, we have new opportunities for configuring color options. No matter how much of a function-over-form kind of person you are, a product that looks cool while it does a top-notch job is always better than one that looks like it was made out of scraps from the appliance aisle at Home Depot. We know you want your car to not only look good, but to make your car your own, and utilizing like parts and manufacturing techniques across multiple model product lines will allow us to give you higher levels of customization. Bottom line – tell us what you want your parts to look like. Have an idea for how to make something more customized or unique to the person who is buying the parts? Use our product submission form and let us know what you want.

Cutting Edge R&D

Airflow design of the Short Ram intake



On the R&D front, we’re utilizing some cutting edge techniques in computational flow dynamics and test equipment so that we can gather data from our existing intake systems and build complex computer models that will allow us to rapidly prototype and develop new intake systems as well as other induction systems to improve the performance of your Mazda. As we move into mastering some of these techniques we’ll become more and more able to intuit ways to improve the flow of gasses through your engines. In this respect, intakes are unbelievably simple, but a number of factors can cause pressure drops across the length of the intake and effectively act as the same thing as a restriction in the system. We’ll talk more about that in the next few installations of my intake system-related blog posts.

The most important goal for us at CorkSport is to meet your needs for quality performance parts that match the style and aesthetic appeal you’re seeking when you modify your cars. While I aspire to have a decent capability to design trick parts, my input alone on what our systems should look like most certainly isn’t enough – we need your input. Just have a small comment about a color or variation you’d like to see?

Also, if you’ve got a 1999 or later Mazda in need of an intake and live in the Portland, Oregon area, let us know – we’re always looking for cars to use during our prototype and development process. We’re specifically looking for Mazda 6’s, 2007-2009 Mazdaspeed 3 & 2010-2013 Mazdaspeed3 in 4 and 6 cylinder versions. I’m also looking for a 2.0 liter 2004-2009 Mazda3 and a 1999-2000 1.6 liter Mazda Protégé.

On and off in the next few months I’ll be discussing more about intake design: Differences between long tube cold air intakes and short ram intakes, filter selection and misconceptions, factory warranty concerns, effects of water in the combustion process, our testing and validation process and the tools we use to get the job done right. Hell, I might even go into some details of some of the modular intake manifold designs and concepts I’ve been toying around with for my own cars that might show up in our product line come next summer.

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Product Testing Has Never Been So Fun!

I have finally got some time to polish the washer behind the steering wheel on the 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 and I can without a doubt say it is an unbelievably fun car. I come from a world of cars that have an immense amount of what I like to call ‘Soul.’ Meaning they’re rickety and loud and generally belch mass quantities of fuel out the tailpipe on tipping into the throttle after 7500rpm decel because the 45mm Weber DCOE’s are washing the cylinder walls down like a firehose. So for me to drive a refined car is usually an exercise in complaining about how quiet it is or that it doesn’t have enough of this so called ‘Soul.’ Meaning I feel out of place because I’m actually in a nice car that behaves like it should and also accelerates and handles like a monster. It’s my exercise in self justification that my 70’s and 80’s cars have something that replaces the refinement that I am so dearly missing.

During the product validation phase for our Power Series Intake System we found that the 2010 Speed3 has a very low tolerance for improved intake designs – the window for fuel trim on the 2010 seems to be far narrower than it was with the 2007-2009. And the car runs pig-rich at wide open throttle from the factory, and from what we can tell Mazda wants to keep it that way. Which is ridiculous – maximum best torque isn’t made at 10:1 AFR. We have managed to design a system that pushes the envelope for power and also resides at the upper end of the safe zone as it relates to ECU Long Term Fuel Trims (LTFTs). This required us to spend a lot of time behind the wheel with an OBD2 datalogger to gather data off the 2nd Gen. ECU. We’d then head back to the lab to crunch some numbers and improve our understanding of what the ECU wants to see, what factors effect that and how to manipulate them for safe running and excellent power while simultaneously avoiding the dreaded CEL/MIL light. And no, the first step of the install instructions aren’t ‘Remove Gauge Cluster and cut traces on Tachometer circuit board that lead to check engine LED.’

But wait, this technical background story is nothing compared to the best part – all those hours behind the wheel!! After countless hours of punching up and down the freeway at various levels of cruise, I switched gears and took the 2010 out on one of my favorite loops… Until this point, I hadn’t had a good opportunity to really see what the car was capable of, as most of my time in it was on commutes and around town driving.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with where we’re located, CorkSport is in Vancouver, Washington – right across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. Vancouver is in the shadow of Mt. St. Helens, the cascade range volcano that blew 2000′ off its top in 1980. I live about halfway between Mt. St. Helens and Vancouver and the North Clark County area has an amazing array of roads snaking over the landscape. Banked 180 degree curves abound and just when you’re ready to pull over and lean your head out to paint the tarmac with your lunch, the road opens up to 1-2 mile straights that give your inner ear the slightest respite prior to wrapping right back into beautiful Nurburgring-esque sweepers among gorgeous green foliage and narrow cliff-lined lakes.



The Speed3 performed phenomenally. There were plenty of areas for improvement, what with it having stock suspension, no strut braces, factory tires, etc. For the most part, however, it was a blast to drive. The factory brakes are surprisingly capable and the transmission gearing is perfectly matched for putting lots of power down through the curves and even more as the straights open up. The engine management provides a very crisp deceleration with its overrun (deceleration) fuel cut algorithm. There were a number of times when I had to remind myself that I was simply going waay too fast and back off in areas where sight distance was limited, but the car is so smooth to accelerate through 2nd, 3rd and 4th that it’s hard to realize you’re doing 90-100mph.

Coming from a predominantly rear wheel and all wheel drive background, the Speed takes some getting used to when hammering it around corners laying down 300lb-ft of torque. In sharp turns under acceleration, the massive torque-steer requires some elbow grease to reorient the treads to follow the road, but the benefit gained on big sweepers is well worth the tradeoff provided in the FWD drivetrain configuration. This is a wonderful car and if you can get past the torque steer and not be bothered by it (which takes very little time from what I’ve found), the benefits had from the power that causes it far outweigh the initial surprise of how heavy handed the car can be under certain conditions. But for me, the torquesteer is an excellent addition – I think I have slowly identified that what I see to be the feeling of ‘Soul’ in a car is really just elements of a visceral experience – and the torquesteer is the only unrefined and live thing about the car that reminds you that you’re not driving your girlfriend’s Jetta. As automotive enthusiasts we long for these elements in our cars which is why we love to modify them – a throaty exhaust system and an intake / turbo inlet that allow you to hear the turbo spool up both go a long way to bringing your Mazda’s Soul out of its cage and to the surface.

– Jason

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2010 MazdaSpeed3 First Dyno Results

MazdaSpeed3 Dyno


Just got got the 2010 Mazdaspeed3 off the dyno after doing some installs and have some results to share.

The Dyno run went great for the 2010 MS3. It’s bone stock with three mods – CorkSport Power Series Racepipe (80mm with factory 65mm outlet) and CS Power Series Intake w/ Turbo Inlet and a set of CorkSport Motor Mount Inserts. Each of these products will be released shortly for the 2010 MS3 including some revised design considerations for the new 2010.

The stock baseline numbers for the 2010 were 231hp 269tq (73.8F/45%Humidity). With the two mods, it hammered down 272hp and 301tq (78.7F/43%Humidity).

41hp gain, 32ft lb of torque. Boost went from factory 16.4psi to 18.6. $388! Can’t wait to see what it picks up with the downpipe.

If you have a Speed3 without any exhaust modifications or haven’t added an intake or a turbo inlet pipe, hit me up…there’s power on the table right in front of you.

– Jason

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Cold Air Induction Box

CorkSport is proud to announce that we are expanding our Cold Air Induction Box product line to include an Air Box for the COBB SF Intake system as well as our current development of cold air boxes for the 2010 Mazdaspeed3 and 2010 Mazda3.

In our testing of this product we wanted to define:

  • Where the cold and hot air fronts exist in the engine compartment and what differential can be expected between these areas.
  • Where high and low pressure areas exist which direct requirements for sealing off areas to ensure the coldest air temperatures into the filter.

To achieve these results, we determined that extensive pressure drop testing under dynamic conditions was not possible while delivering a box that retails under $100. A well planned design of experiment which measured temperatures in the engine compartment, airbox and surrounding areas would give us not only the hard numbers we needed to show results, but also some intuition as to where the various pressure zones exist and how that effects movement of hot and cold air in the vicinity of the filter. What we found is that the various pressure zones in the engine compartment can create barriers preventing the intake from drawing hot air.

Our testing utilized a MSD DashHawk OBD2 Datalogging system and an Innovate TC-4 Four Channel Thermocouple Logger to measure Inlet Air Temperatures, Boost Air Temperatures, Ambient Air Temperature and two channels of thermocouple inside the box and directly outside the box in the hot engine compartment. The ambient air temperature on this day was about 64F. Earlier in the day we tested the short ram intake without our box and found intake air temps were 2-8 degrees lower than the engine compartment temperature.

Testing these variables on our cold air box design we saw a huge benefit – over 30 degree difference between the engine compartment and the interior of the box. By time of this testing, the engine compartment had a chance to heat soak and the hot air in the engine compartment 10-15 degrees higher. Despite this increase in temperature, our average temperature differential was now in the 25-28 degree range and inlet air temperatures were down 8-12 degrees dependent on volume of airflow past the sensor – obviously in traffic you’re going to get some level of heatsoak in the inlet system, MAF Housing, etc. – but that cools off quickly when 64 degree ambient air temperatures blast past at the rate of an office cubicle of volume per minute.

Some may ask, why is your box not enclosed or better sealed within the engine compartment? In the course of our testing seal off surfaces, we found areas – such as the gap under the box – are either a source of cool air or have a pressure effect that prevents hot air from entering into them. Some of these, such as the seams on the box, were beneficial to seal off, some provide relatively cool air, but others were completely inconclusive. Bottom line, there are a number of areas which may appear to allow hot air into the box, but testing proved otherwise.

The end result is a series of boxes which use a overhanging lid with seal strip along the mating surface, silicone seal at the filter port and contoured front edges which align with the headlight assembly. These systems promote filter temperatures roughly equivalent to ambient air temperature and 8-12 degree inlet air temperatures drops compared to similar intake systems without the box. Note: As we did not test at all possible outside air temperatures, extremely hot or extremely cold ambient temperatures may show some variation from these results, but the effects should be minimal.

If you have any questions or suggestions of further tests or concerns you may have with the CorkSport Power Series Intake System or CorkSport Cold Air Induction Systems, feel free to post comments to this blog so we may update the details and content.

– Jason