{"id":8334,"date":"2016-08-24T08:29:51","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T16:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corksport.com\/blog\/?p=8334"},"modified":"2020-08-03T08:09:14","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T16:09:14","slug":"corksport-mods-mazda3-touring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corksport.com\/blog\/corksport-mods-mazda3-touring\/","title":{"rendered":"My CorkSport Mods: Andrew’s Mazda 3 i Touring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in March 2015, I bought my Mazda3 i Touring<\/a> brand-new from the dealership with intentions of keeping it stock. Clearly, that didn\u2019t last long. The challenge was how to make an already fun car more fun. That\u2019s when I turned to CorkSport.<\/p>\n

Having purchased my third Mazda, and having numerous friends who shop through the company, it was a no-brainer to start here first. The first week having the car, I purchased the license plate relocation kit<\/a> because, let\u2019s face it, the factory mount looks atrocious smack-dab in the middle of the grille.<\/p>\n

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After installation, the quality of materials and attention to detail were easily noticeable from the plate holder itself, along with the rest of the assembly. (The special screws to deter anyone from easily removing your plate are a nice touch.)<\/p>\n

After that, it was time to update the rather dim interior lighting setup that previously came with the car. The LED kit<\/a> included both map lights, vanity mirror lights, license plate bulb, and a trunk bulb; all were extremely simple to install and produced an outstanding light output, which I was very impressed with compared to the stock bulbs.<\/p>\n

The final, somewhat minor, upgrade I made was the manual shift knob. The factory one is OK, and it fits the hand well, but it\u2019s just missing something. From here, I chose to purchase the black, aluminum weighted shift knob<\/a>, and boy was it like night and day! I opted to have it fully weighted, and it barely even takes any effort to shift. Definitely recommended!<\/p>\n

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After these minor improvements, I kind of had a craving for better handling. So, the first purchase was a set of CS lowering springs<\/a>, KONI yellow shocks and struts, and the CS front strut tower bar<\/a>. The three of these items paired together produce such a competitive and sporty handling experience. It\u2019s unreal.<\/p>\n

Corners that I would\u2019ve been hesitant to attempt quickly are now a breeze to take at accelerated speeds. The springs give just the right height where the center of gravity is located, but also provide a very practical everyday driving height. (This is necessary for those of us who use our rides as a daily driver.) I couldn\u2019t be more pleased with the outcome.<\/p>\n

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After these handling improvements, I turned my attention to the previously installed shift knob. The short shift kit<\/a> was on my radar for a while, and finally became a reality when I received it as a birthday present. You don\u2019t realize how long the stock throws are until you install the kit, which only reduces the throw by 33 percent, but you can feel the difference instantly. It\u2019s not a huge jump, but after a while, you can\u2019t even tell that you installed it, because it feels like the car should\u2019ve came with the throw from the factory. It\u2019s very tidy, easy to install, and a quick upgrade to really make a difference to your everyday driving. I didn\u2019t realize I even needed it until I finally installed it. Sooner rather than later, I\u2019m going to opt for the shifter bushings<\/a> as well to really set off the whole shifting experience.<\/p>\n

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The last tier I focused on was the engine\/exhaust system. I haven\u2019t done a whole lot yet. So far, I\u2019ve installed the CS short ram intake<\/a>, which was a very pleasant surprise. The system produces a very mature deep growl, which is a big step up from the stock noises (or lack thereof).<\/p>\n

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The modification I\u2019ve been most pleased with, however, has been the axleback exhaust system<\/a> that I recently installed. I was a bit hesitant to pull the trigger on this one because exhausts can either make or break a car, so I did some research before deciding. After reading a couple of blog posts on the third gen pages, I \u00a0decided to give it a shot. I wasn\u2019t disappointed.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had countless strangers and friends compliment the low, \u201cbassy\u201d tone the exhaust produces, which is something I was really looking for. The highway drone isn\u2019t too bad. It definitely exists, but it\u2019s not overpowering like some that I\u2019ve experienced. And it isn\u2019t even that noticeable after it\u2019s been installed for a while. The stock car in itself is relatively quiet, so it takes a little getting used to once you start adding some mods.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s essentially all I\u2019ve done so far through CorkSport, and I couldn\u2019t be happier with their product line, customer service, and all around quality. It\u2019s been nothing but pleasant, and I will definitely continue to order from them as time goes on.<\/p>\n

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\u2013 Andrew Fuller, CorkSport Customer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you make a fun car more fun? Andrew Fuller turned to CorkSport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[46,530,68,10,70,62,529,274,124],"class_list":["post-8334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mazda3","tag-corksport","tag-license-plate-kit","tag-lowering-springs","tag-mazda-3","tag-mazda-aftermarket-parts","tag-mazda-performance","tag-mods","tag-shift-knob","tag-short-ram-intake"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corksport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corksport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corksport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corksport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corksport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/corksport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corksport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corksport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corksport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corksport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}