Tag: RX8

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CorkSport Goes to SevenStock XII

We attended Sevenstock XII down in sunny Irvine, California on September 26th for a fun day of Mazda rotary-powered goodness. The event was held at Mazda’s headquarters which has plenty of parking and provides a great backdrop for the biggest rotary event in the world. As you can see below, when we arrived we were greeted with a reminder of what Mazda is all about.



There was plenty of Mazda’s favorite catch phrase on display at the event. Row after row of rotary powered vehicles were in the parking lot, and the enthusiasts who drove them there could be found wandering around taking it all in. The people in charge told us that there were more cars at this year’s event than there had been at any previous Sevenstock.




Sevenstock always has people who had travel long distance to reach the show, but this year we saw some people who travelled especially far. RE-Amemiya and Knightsports flew in from Japan to get more acquainted with US rotary fans, and hopefully spread the word about their parts. We drove 1000 miles to setup a booth at the event and show off some of CorkSport’s new parts for rotary vehicles. A lucky RX-8 owner won the newly released CorkSport RX-8 Racepipe we donated to the Sevenstock raffle.


There were some really outstanding cars at the event. I particularly liked the white FD below with the 99 spec front end conversion installed. The car even had a rare Mazdaspeed vented hood.




In my opinion, the best sounding engine at the event was a 4-rotor in the time attack RX-8. The best way to describe a 4 rotor engine sound to someone who has not heard one is that it’s like an F1 engine only better. The motor has wicked fast throttle response and took maybe a second to redline while free revving.




It was great getting to talk to everyone at the event and chatting with customers about their cars. I look forward to next year’s event to see great cars and great people again. If you have the means, please stop by our booth at any of the shows we attend!

– Derrick

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CorkSport September 2009 Swap Meet and Dyno Day

We had our swap meet and dyno day on Saturday the 19th. The weather for the day was pretty ominous with rain forecasted from early morning to around noon and it was right on. At 6am the rain started up but that didn’t stop us from getting the event going.


10am with the rain coming down


Alan Webb Mazda showed up at the event early and brought along some parts to sell at a discount and a new 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 to show off. We had the swap meet spaces in doors to keep people dry during the entire day. There were lots of good deals to be had at the event that we offered and other people brought as well.


People checking out the deals (including the sweet RE-Amemiya MS3 hood)


We had almost the entire Mazda range of models represented at the event. All models of Rx7s, Rx8s, Mazda Proteges (new and older models), Miatas, Mazda 6s, and Mazda 3s.


Scott’s FC with the drift damage can be seen at the right (Scott too)


The dyno event had 20 cars on run on it during the day. The best power made was a NB Miata with a GT3076R turbocharger at 400 wheel hp. The car is very un-assuming until the driver hits the throttle.


The biggest dyno number of the day went to the red Miata above.


The day even had a few surprises in it too. The 1st gen Rx7 after its dyno run drove around the parking lot and the tie rod end broke. After a quick assessment and help from CorkSport the tie rod end was repaired and the car was back on 4 wheels. Thankfully it happened in our parking lot and not on his drive home.


Oh Snap!


Thank you to everyone for coming out and making the event despite the not so pleasant weather early in the day. I would like to mention a special thanks to Alan Webb Mazda for braving the weather and to MazdasNW group for driving down from the Seattle area.

– Derrick

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Catalysts for All!

Now I know what you may be thinking – WHAT? We don’t need any stinking catalysts. But ya see, that’s the rub – those track days at the ‘ring are lots of fun, but you’re not fooling anyone when the people in the lunch line at Laguna Seca can smell your exhaust. I’ll be the first to say that catalysts serve a great purpose and beyond the evils of over-restrictive cats on stock vehicles, can be a great addition to any performance vehicle.

At CorkSport we have been listening to you, our customers, and there seems to be an interest to have the performance of a racepipe without the foul, eye-scorching smell of fuel every time you cold start the vehicle. Well, you’re in luck – we’ve recently found a source for high quality metallic substrate catalysts in a compact yet high flowing 410 stainless steel package and we plan on offering a range of products that provide these catalysts as a configurable option with our current line of racepipes.

Catalysts: How they work and their failure modes.

A catalytic converter is a device resembles a muffler or resonator – basically an enlarged section of your exhaust system that has a honeycomb structure held inside of it. The honeycomb is then coated with a substrate that creates a chemical reaction based on heat and any unburnt fuel in your exhaust system. Anyone who has used a propane space heater – the kind that glow and don’t really give off any tangible flame – has seen a catalyst at work. Substrate and brick/insert design is relatively straightforward – the more surface area you have, the more efficient the catalyst is at burning unburnt fuel. In the search for more surface area, the density of the honeycomb increases – as does restriction of the system.

This honeycomb comes in two forms – a metallic stainless foil version and a ceramic version. Based on the manufacturing process, the ceramic version must be retained in the canister with a fiberglass or vermiculite packing material around the circumference of the ceramic ‘brick’. In rotary and turbocharged applications, this material often deteriorates from excess heat and pressure allowing the ceramic substrate to rotate and/or crack.

Our catalysts

Our catalysts utilize a 200 cell metallic substrate design and have the honeycomb material all the way to the wall of the canister without any additional packing material that may deteriorate. The metallic spiral is held in place mechanically from either end to prevent movement. The canisters and tubing are made of 410 Stainless Steel and all carry a 5 year manufacturers warranty.

New products

To start with we will be offering the RX-8 Power Series Racepipe in a single resonator/single 65mm catalyst configuration (as well as a single or dual resonator configuration). We’re in the process of doing the first production run on these and hope to have them out in the next two or three weeks.

The next product we will be working with is the Mazdaspeed3 Racepipe with 80mm high flow catalyst, this should be available in the next month in production quantities.

Finally, we are also working on Mazdaspeed6 Racepipe with 80mm high flow catalyst.

Drop me an email if you’re interested in getting in on these products hot off the mandrel – we’ll have a handful of pre-tested prototypes and then full production runs of all of these products within the coming months.

Stay up-to-date on the latest news and product updates from CorkSport.

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First Look: RX8 – Power Series Dual-Resonated Racepipe

RX8 Racepipe

The last week has been a lot of fun here at Corksport. We have been working on developing a cure for High Decibel Situational Tourettes Syndrome, which effects a certain percentage of enthusiasts who run a non resonated racepipe in their RX-8.

Our latest solution is a dual resonated Power Series Racepipe for the ’04-’10 RX-8. Incorporating a 140mm primary resonator and a 100mm secondary resonator with 61mm exhaust tubing, the resonated racepipe improves exhaust flow dramatically while keeping the decibels at a level reasonable enough to avoid spontaneous profanity from drivers and spectators alike. Think your racepipe is too loud? Check out this video clip of the Power Series Dual Resonated Racepipe and with Power Series Cat-Back Exhaust on our ’04 RX-8 and let us know what you think:

Like all of our Power Series exhaust products, the Dual Resonated Racepipe for the RX-8 incorporates only the highest quality materials and manufacturing methods.  Featuring T304 stainless mandrel bent tubing, stainless oxygen sensor fittings (one for the stock oxygen sensor and a secondary unit for the use of a Wideband O2 monitoring & datalogging system), T304 resonators and flanges. All connections are TIG welded with 308 stainless rod to ensure good weld penetration and attractive finish on the weld bead.
We’re hoping to get a handful of these systems out on the street in the next month and we’ll keep you posted as soon as they’re available to the public.

We’re also entertaining the possibility of incorporating a high flow catalyst into the system to keep emissions to a minimum.  This will be a 108mm spun metallic substrate catalyst replacing the secondary resonator.  If this is something that would interest you, let me know by dropping me an email.

Next week: Short Ram Intake Cold Air Box Performance Results & Analysis for the Mazdaspeed 3 and 6.

– Jason

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Alan Webb Performance Meet

In this age of multi-brand dealerships it’s not too often that you get to visit a Mazda only dealership, let alone a NEW Mazda only dealership. Most of the time the dealers are selling at least one other brand with the Mazda product line but not this time.  Alan Webb built a new store for their Mazda franchise and had a performance meet / BBQ to celebrate the grand opening.  Of course, I attended the event (on June 26th) and brought along one of our cars.

Anyone with a Mazda was invited to the event and there was a range of vehicles that showed up including some vintage Mazda hardware; an RX2 and RX3.  The Mt Hood Miata club and RPNW (Rotary Power North West) made up the majority of cars that attended the event, but there was cars from all over the area.

I brought along the CorkSport project RX8 to the show to display the new CorkSport RX8 tower braces.  The RX8 definitely gets lots of looks driving around.

Alan Webb stopped by the show as well and his comment about the CorkSport RX8 was “That car is hot!”  I didn’t take the opportunity to give him a hard time about driving a 350z convertible to the show, next time I will.

A special thanks to Colin in the parts department at Alan Webb for getting the whole show together.

– Derrick