This 2010 Mazda 3 sedan, powered by a 20B 3 rotor engine started life as a plain model silver Mazda 3 sedan powered by a 1.6 diesel engine. In today’s post we will explore the evolution of the Team Van Herck Mazda 3 and how it became the machine it is today.

The process starts with several hours of stripping the car to get a chassis ready to start work.

Next they changed the drive train layout from a front wheel drive econobox to a rear wheel drive 450 hp 20B racecar. This involves some serious surgery.

The chassis was fitted to a frame rack in order to modify the front and rear chassis. A core engine was setup to get the support frames built and the transmission mounted. You can also see the beginning of the intake penned in on the card board box.

The new framework is welded into the chassis along with the roll cage for safety. There is a huge amount of time into adding the subframe and roll cage. You can see the bolt up locations for the rear diff in the bottom of the V in the cage on the right side.

With the Mazda 3 being changed to rear wheel drive it required more space for the rear tires for the 3 rotor engine. The inner wheel liners had to be built and incorporated into the new rear suspension. The upper suspension pick up points are shown just above the new rear frame.

You may not recognize the black rear differential sub frame, that is because it is from a BMW. In this case it was used for two reasons, #1 there are tons of them available, and #2 there are plenty of options available for final drive ratios.

The rear shot through the trunk really shows the extra width given to the rear wheels.

After all of the frame work was finished up the entire chassis was painted white including the roll cage. The seat was mounted along with the pedals, steering, and wiring was started.

The rear suspension links and shock absorbers were mounted up with the new hubs.

The engine bay was coated with a layer of reflective heat insulation. Critical areas like the frame rail which is next to the exit point of the exhaust for the 20b engine. If you look at the center of the picture you can see an opening in the firewall for the exhaust to travel in. The piping exhaust travels in an enclosed channel through the right side of the chassis.

You can see the tunnel for the exhaust system along the floor of the chassis on the passenger side. More of the wiring is completed for the fuse panel and engine control.

The car uses stainless steel packed Magnaflow mufflers and v-band clamps for quick release if it needs to be changed. You can see the exit path from the exhaust tunnel. Also notice there is no floor between the frame fitted yet. It will be filled in with aluminum to enclose the car with minimal weight.

In the front of the car, the factory crash bar has been hit with a hole saw to lighten it up and filled in with pipe to keep the air passing through it from being too turbulent. The crash bar now also houses the tow strap and an alternate mount point on the right side of the car. On the hood you can see the markings for the ducting and the planned vents.

The front suspension reveals more surprises if you look close. The suspension subframe is made from aluminum and not from a Mazda 3. The knuckle is also aluminum but from a front wheel drive vehicle as you can see the splines for an axle would go in the middle of the hub. What road race car wouldn’t be complete with some huge AP racing rotors and calipers.

With the engine fitted you get a good sense of how the layout of the airbox for the intake will be. The picture gives you a good shot of the peripheral port intake manifold on the CLR built 20B. The hydraulic reservoirs are pretty easy to ID which is a must in the heat of racing when you come into the pits and you need to quickly ID items under the hood.

With the partially finished airbox you can get a sense of size of the air intake that will be fed by the hood ducting when it is completed. The metal framework above the radiator is for additional coolers which were mounted later.

With the rest of the intake installed you cannot see the engine in the Mazda 3, just some sexy purpose built carbon fiber ducting. You also get a good idea of how wide the tires are on this Mazda 3. With the widebody front fenders, they are huge.

The trunk of the Mazda 3 gets the treatment too when it comes to function. There are coolers for the rear differential and the transmissions along with the remote reservoirs for the rear shocks. If you notice the coolant tank is also set opposite the driver in the chassis to help balance out the loads.

After 1 year of hard work the Mazda 3 was out for a shakedown run at the track. The irony of the door logos is worth a laugh, it definitely is a “New Mazda”

The last touches of the Mazda 3 were completed by adding the liverly from Mazda and the Garage van Herck Raceteam.

It was reported at the first event the other teams were very surprised at the speed of the rotary powered Mazda 3.

Here are some great videos of the 20B powdered Mazda 3

Special thanks to MVdesign for the video.

2012 should be a great year for the Mazda 3 and Garage van Herck

-Derrick

His father always owned Corvettes and Porsches and Jordan has owned several sports cars throughout his driving career and, but nothing gives him the satisfaction quite like his RX-8 does.

Standard, the 2004 RX-8 comes with a 1.3-liter 250 HP rotary engine that is like no other. Jordan then added in a Mazdaspeed Modified Intake and a CorkSport Single Resonated Exhaust to give the car some extra boost and decibel levels 20′ outside the car off the back bumper that are 64dB at idle, 95dB at 4000rpm and 103dB at 5000rpm free rev. Inside the car it posts 72dB at 38mph in 4th gear, 94dB at 30% throttle acceleration in 4th gear and 88dB at cruise 60mph in 6th gear.

He also modified the engine with a Flex Innovations Grounding Kit, CorkSport Oil Cap, a Universal Oil Catch Can and Black Halo Racing Ignition System.

The RX-8 features a double-wishbone suspension at all four corners. The upper and lower arms in both the front and rear are considerably longer and allow for consistent grip regardless of changes in roll and camber for top-notch cornering performance so Jordan hasn’t done much yet to the suspension, but now that he has gotten into autocrossing, he will be looking into getting some suspension mods. He plans to swap out his Tein S-Tech Lowering Springs for a set of coilovers and add a CorkSport Front and Rear Strut Bar Set to further improve his lap times.

To enhance the sporty look on the car, Jordan has added a Mazdaspeed front bumper, Mazda Clear Corner Lenses and 35% window tint in the front and 20% in the rear

“The car is beautiful and gets looks from people everywhere I go,” said Jordan, “It is also a huge amount of fun around the autocross track. And did I mention it has a rotary engine?”

When Jordan isn’t working, he is spending time with his longtime girlfriend and fellow Mazda enthusiast, Domii, who you may recall was profiled in our September feature.

They are both looking forward to the autocross season and we look forward getting updates on how this Mazda match made in heaven do on the track this coming year!

You can also check out his progress on his project car at his blog.

Gwynne-

Full List of Modifications:
Engine
• Flex Innovations Grounding Kit
• Corksport Oil Cap
• Universal Oil Catch Can
• Black Halo Racing Ignition System

Intake/Exhaust
• Mazdaspeed Modified Intake
• Corksport Single Resonated Race Pipe

Transmission/Drivetrain
• Axial Flow Engineering Short Throw Shifter

Suspension
• Tein S-Tech Lowering Springs

Footwork
• Axxis ULT Brake Pads
• Agency Power Stainless Steel Brake Lines
• Toyo R1R 265/35/18 Tires
• Enkei RP03 Racing Wheels 18×9 et35

Exterior
• Mazdaspeed Front Bumper
• Mazda Clear Corner Lenses
• Window Tint 35% Front, 20% Rear

Interior
• Voodoo Piano Black Shift Knob
• RedlineGoods Custom Leather Shift Boot

Electronics
• Escort Passport 9500 Radar Detector
• Pioneer Avic F-700BT Navi
• 10″ Boston Acoustics G10 Subwoofer in Custom Fiberglass Box

Brand Reductions or Eliminations:

AutoExe: The significant increase in the exchange rate with the yen has made many of the AutoExe parts exorbitantly expensive for our customers and slowed sales of their products considerably. We have made the decision to drop the roughly 400 parts of theirs we had listed from our website. We very much appreciate the partnership we’ve had with AutoExe for many years. They are an excellent company and we still recommend their products to anyone that can afford their premium price.

J-Spec: We source Mazda Genuine parts from the Japanese market. Again, the exchange rate with the yen slowed sales of these parts so we have decided to drop the slow sellers from our catalog.

CorkSport FRP Styling: Fiberglass (FRP) has fallen out of favor over the past 5 years. As new (younger) customers have come to the market who are not familiar with FRP and superior materials have become available, FRP doesn’t make as much sense anymore.

We are clearing out all FRP bumpers, side skirts, and rear spoilers from our catalog. This represents roughly 50 CorkSport brand parts most of which are for 86-91 Rx7 and 90-94 Protege. We will still be selling the more popular front lips and other small styling parts built from FRP.

As CorkSport develops new styling components for Mazdas, we will be transitioning to other types of durable plastics in place of FRP.

Here is a link to clearance parts that will be available for a limited time if you are interested in purchasing any of these parts before they become unavailable. We’ve also denoted the affected parts in the model specific catalogs with a ‘Clearance’ notation in the product title.

Do not worry if you purchased any parts on the discontinued list. We will we will still honor any warranty or customer service related items on these parts, we are just discontinuing them from the site.

If you have questions or concerns about the pending changes to our inventory, please feel free to send us your feedback at questions@corksport.com

Gwynne –

It all began over a year ago with a product submission from Todd Friar, a well-respected member of the Mazdaspeed3 community that you can often find contributing on the forums as Todd98se.

Based on his submission we began exploring manufacturability when we received a second product idea submission from Eric Poyer on 5/03/2011 that helped to confirm the viability of this product. With a second customer willing to participate in the development process we felt confident we could design a part that would be a sales success.

We collected their input on important features and target price and after a few weeks, we presented drawings to Eric and Todd for their consideration.

With their feedback in hand, we developed sample sets for test fitment.

We confirmed successful installation in our shop then got a sample sent out to Todd for further feedback. He even wrote up a fantastic installation process post on the Mazdaspeed forums.

Our initial design required cutting the strut tower, something we were well used to seeing having been in this business for so long. Eric however, was resistant to the idea of cutting his strut tower, something we then realized may be an issue for other customers as well, and a detail we may have missed had it not been for his involvement in the development process.

We knew we had to go back to the drawing board to remove the requirement to cut the strut tower and we also knew we needed to reassure people that cutting the strut tower would not compromise the integrity of the vehicle.

Using Solidworks, we did some force analysis testing that backed up what we already knew from experience and provided the data needed to show that it is possible to safely remove some material from the strut towers.

We also redesigned the camber plates to allow for installation without cutting the strut tower by recessing the bolts.

Other features we incorporated into the production version from Todd’s feedback are larger M10 studs which reduce camber variation during removal and reinstallation and longer studs to allow for improved fitment with strut tower bars.

The final product is a front camber kit that provides up to -3 degrees of negative camber with aftermarket coilovers and can be installed without any permanent modifications. Proper cutting of the strut tower allows for easy access camber tuning to dial in performance handling on and off the track.

Solid pillow ball bearings and housing reduce unwanted upper strut mount deflection and improve handling during racing and high performance driving.

Our camber kit can be used with aftermarket lowering springs and OEM springs for reduced upper strut mount deflection, however, negative camber is limited to 1.5 degrees due to spring interference. We will be revising the CorkSport lowering springs to allow for a wider range of camber adjustment and expect them to be out later in 2012.

Our knowledgebase is a repository for all sorts of information. For the camber plate development process, the interested reader can view each article we wrote during the development process for more details.

Article 1: Article 2: Article 3: Article 4:

Todd and Eric were fantastic during the development process. This was one of the most work intensive products we have released to-date and we could not have done it without them! The CorkSport Mazdaspeed 3 Front Camber Kit is available for purchase from CorkSport.com for $359.00

Rich-

2011 proved to be a busy year for CorkSport with 28 new products coming to market. In order of release, we added the following to our list of offerings:

Mazda 3/Mazdaspeed 3 Rear Chassis Brace Set
2010+ Mazdaspeed 3 Front Strut Bar
Mazda 2 Lightweight Crankshaft Pulley
Mazdaspeed 3 Lightweight Crankshaft Pulley
Mazda 3/Mazdaspeed 3 License Plate Relocation Kit
2010+ Mazdaspeed 3 Front Sway Bar
Mazda 2 Power Series Exhaust
2010+ Mazda 3 Power Series Air Box
RX-7 and RX-8 Banjo Bolt
Mazda 2 Quick Release Chassis Brace
Mazda 2 Front Strut Bar
Mazdaspeed 3/Mazdaspeed 6/CX-7 Turbo Top Mount Intercooler
Stubby Antenna
Mazdaspeed 3 Lowering Springs
Mazda Radiator Caps
Mazdaspeed 3 FMIC kit for SRI
Mazdaspeed 6 Mud Flaps
Extended Lightweight Lug Nuts
Mazdaspeed 6 Rear Sway Bar
2001-2003 Mazda/Mazdaspeed Protégé Skid Tray
Mazda 2 Front Sway Bar
Mazda 3/Mazdaspeed 3 Front End Links
Mazdaspeed 3 Short Shift Plate
Mazda 3/Mazdaspeed 3 Shifter Bushings
Mazdaspeed 3 Catted Downpipe
LED Underhood Lighting

So what can you expect from CorkSport to start off 2012?

Early next week we will be launching the CorkSport Front Camber Kit for Mazdaspeed 3. This kit is designed to provide camber adjustability and dial in performance on the Mazdaspeed 3 with up to -3 degrees of camber adjustability.

Next we will be rolling out a new and improved turbo inlet pipe for those who are running a stock or non-CorkSport intake system. The newest version of our turbo inlet pipe has been redesigned to provide seamless fitment with OEM or other aftermarket intake systems by replicating the fitment of the factory TIP to the intake while maintaining all of the characteristics that have made our turbo inlet pipe a top selling product.

We will also be introducing our staged intake systems with the addition of a stage one CorkSport short ram intake without turbo inlet pipe for those that want to upgrade to a basic package. The stage two intake system will be our number one selling CorkSport short ram intake with turbo inlet pipe and the stage three intake system will be the new CorkSport Cold Air Intake which has been designed to push the filter away from the engine and will have the unique feature of being interchangeable with our short ram intake system for customers wanting to run a cold air intake in the summer and short ram in the winter!

We will also be launching the highly anticipated CorkSport Oil Catch Can early this year. This has gone through several iterations to find the ideal design that would provide functionality and be simple to install. The end result is an aluminum, bolt-on oil catch can that will help keep your intake clean by filtering out the junk that would otherwise end up in your intake manifold and possibly on your valves. You can see a full string on the development of this product on the Mazdaspeedforum.

Also to come early this year is the new addition to our CorkSport LED lighting product line with the CorkSport Mazdaspeed 3 Bumper Lights.

Let’s also not forget our Mazdaspeed Protégé drivers out there, we have something for you as well with Mazdaspeed Protégé Silicone Intercooler Hoses expected to be out soon!

This represents just some of the great products you can expect to see from CorkSport in the coming year!

Gwynne-

Mazda had a patent approved on January 12, 2010 for a forced induction engine with two sources of boost. The patent refers to an electric driven compressor (electric supercharger) which disengages when the engine reaches a pre-determined mid-range RPM point at which point the engine switches over to an exhaust driven compressor (a turbo charger).

This could be really handy for a small displacement engine when you want to get a large amount of power. The electric supercharger gives the engine the necessary boost to get the mid-range where the engine can then develop enough exhaust flow to spin the turbocharger.

This is the same theory used for a twin turbo charged engine but with instant boost from the electric supercharger. It can give a small displacement engine a decent torque improvement and the turbocharger will add the benefit of top-end power.

The whole idea gets even better with a variable vane turbine that would adjust to the engine speed. The faster the engine speed the more exhaust volume, allowing you to get the most out of the turbocharger efficiency.

This whole patent has the fingerprints of 2015 Mazdaspeed 3 written all over it if you ask me. You would still be getting the smaller, eco-friendly, SkyActiv engine but when you put your foot on it there is a big turbocharger lurking to give you gobs of torque just like the current Mazdaspeed 3.

I will give a word of warning though, not all things which have patents ever see the light of day, but the fact that Mazda spent the time and effort to patent this idea with the US patent office, gives me hope we will see a version of this patent in the next 3-4 years.

-Derrick

Car shows are amazing events where people show off their creativity, ingenuity, and the hard work they put into their rides. Seeing what others do to their cars is what keeps me going to these events and helps to inspire me to try to make my ride even better.

This year I went to 10 events. Some were new to the region (like Driven to Perform and Xtreme Drift Competition) and some were recurring favorites of the Pacific Northwest (like Nos Forum Fest and Import Faceoff). It all started with a car show premiere of Fast Five and then culminated at MazdasNW’s Summer Bash at Corksport HQ in Vancouver, WA.

Here are some highlights from just a few of the events I went to…

Fast Five Premiere Party and Car Show – Tukwila, WA – April 29, 2011
NW Motiv and NOS teamed together to throw a release party for the premier of the movie Fast Five. Situated on the top floor of one of the parking garages at Southcenter Mall, spectators and car enthusiasts were treated to giveaways throughout the day including free tickets for a private showing later that night.

Nos Forum Fest – Kent, WA – June 25, 2011
One of the most memorable events of the year. Forum Fest had something for everybody, a car show, drag racing, and drifting. Once again, MazdasNW won and defended its title of Best Forum with its members grabbing five out of the six available belts for the Mazda categories of Best five door and Best two, three, and four door.

Driven to Perform – Vancouver, BC, Canada – July 16, 2011
DTP is the biggest car show series in Canada. The show was plagued with constant rain showers but that didn’t scare the diehard car enthusiasts from entering their cars and enjoying what the show had to offer.

Xtreme Drift Circuit and Remix Car Show – Kent, WA – August 13, 2011
A drifting competition that featured local and national, amateur and professional drifters.

My Fiance and baby boy came out and visited me at the show. He amazed everybody as he slept through the loud revving and squealing of tires of the drifting competition. He was only 3 month at the time.

It was a fun and memorable year. I didn’t win as many shows as I did last year but I didn’t mind. I was happy to see more Mazdas competing and participating like Rob McChord in his wild protege, Martin Chen in his blacked out Mazdaspeed 3, Brendan Hughes in his green accented Mazda 3, and even the 40+ members that entered the Forum Fest car show.

Being voted by my peers for Car of the Year on mazda3forums.com and featured on Mazdas Meet the Tuners and NWmotiv.com were great honors and happily made up for those times I went home empty handed.

2011 Accomplishments
Mazda3Forums.com 2011 Member Car of the Year
CorkSport Featured Car of the Month – July 2011
Nos Forum Fest Best Mazda 5 Door
Featured on Mazda’s US Site’s Meet the Tuners Section
NWMotiv’s Editor’s Choice Award at MazdasNW Summerbash, which led to a nwmotiv.com web feature.
CorkSport 2012 Calendar Cover

-CJ

Mazda says that the odd name is an adaptation of “Intelligent Energy Loop” and represents the company’s intention to efficiently cycle energy in an intelligent way.The i-ELOOP will use a capacitor which is an electrical component that stores large volumes of electricity in place of a battery to convert the vehicles kinetic energy into electricity when the vehicle decelerates. The energy it produces will be used to power the climate control, audio system and other electrical components of the car.

This type of system is already used in EV technology, with the difference being that regenerative braking systems in electric vehicles use an electric motor and dedicated battery to operate. Mazda avoids the need for this by featuring a new 12-25V variable voltage alternator, a low-resistance electric double layer capacitor and a DC/DC converter.

In their press release, Mazda said “The variable voltage alternator generates electricity at up to 25V for maximum efficiency before sending it to the Electric Double Layer Capacitor (EDLC) for storage. The capacitor, which has been specially developed for use in a vehicle, can be fully charged in seconds. The DC/DC converter steps down the electricity from 25V to 12V before it is distributed directly to the vehicle’s electrical components. The system also charges the vehicle battery as necessary. “

Mazda has yet to name the production model that will feature i-ELOOP but it has been designed to work in harmony with the new SkyActiv engine and transmission technologies that are currently rolling off the production line in the new 2012 Mazda 3′s.

Mazda continues to amaze by combining new technologies with traditional concepts in order to improve fuel efficiency for its vehicles without sacrificing performance.

Gwynne-

A New Website for CorkSport.com

In the relentless quest to provide our customers with the best online shopping experience possible, CorkSport will be launching a brand new website. Our newly designed website, scheduled to launch late this month, will feature improved navigation making it easier for our customers to find the parts they are looking for, a mobile optimized shopping experience for Android and iPhone users, easier to access content, photos and video clips along with a fresh new look. So be ready CorkSport fans because your shopping experience is about to get even better!

Suspension Packages
CorkSport is gearing up to offer a new line of staged suspension packages that will simplify handling upgrades for many of our customers. Our staged suspension packages will accomodate many levels of suspension upgrade needs starting from street performance through racing. We will be rolling out the the new suspension packages beginning with the Mazda 3 and Mazdaspeed 3 with our top package including a new coilover kit for Mazdaspeed 3 with amazing features for the price

SkyActiv Technology

We have blogged about this several times throughout the last year and now we are happy to say that Mazda has officially started rolling out its new line of SkyActiv technology for the Mazda 3 and will continue this trend into 2012 with the launch of the new CX5 platform to combine their legendary drivability with fuel efficiency.

B-Spec Race Series
For 2012 a number of sanctioning bodies have created a new segment of race cars called B-Spec that target the sub-compact market. The aim of this series is to provide more access to racing with the intention of the sanctioning bodies to maintain a single “spec” for the cars. Mazdaspeed Motorsports will be using the Mazda2 as their respective platform for this growing segment of the automotive industry.

CorkSport will also be continuing to compete in the SCCA ST-F class and we will be providing regular updates on our successes as the season evolves.

This represents just a small segment of what is in store for CorkSport and Mazda this year. We will continue to grow our product line and continue our unparalleled support for the Mazda community.

We are looking forward to a successful and exciting 2012!

Gwynne-

We started off 2011 with a bang by going to the Sno Drift Rally in Michigan at the invitation of Thayer Mazda of Michigan. They sponsored the event and went all out by supplying a hospitality tent for anyone who wanted to warm up. Thayer also built a green light car for the event. They used a 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 outfitted with the CorkSport 80mm Cat back, Short Ram Intake, and Aluminum Skid Tray. It was great to see a Mazda dealer get involved on the level they did.

The next event at the Epic Florida Meet in sunny Miami, Florida, was a big contrast from the subzero temps endured during the Sno Drift rally. Lou Bachrodt Mazda hosted the event which was put together by the SFLA Mazda Crew. It was a great event with Mazda’s that ranged from a pristine Rx2 to 2011 Mazdaspeed 3′s and lots of great people and true Mazda enthusiasts to talk with about their cars.

In May we flew to Newburgh New York to attend the OCC All Mazda Meet for a third year. We hosted a focus group to get to know our customers in the northeast better and get feedback from our customers about some of our new ideas and products. Despite a brief rain shower the event was great with a big turnout of Mazdas from all over.

In July we headed to Monroe Washington to attend the Formula D event, with our Rx8 and 2010 Mazdaspeed 3, to hang out with 10,000 other drift fans for a weekend of burning rubber. The amount of attendance at the event was great and the parking lot was a car show by itself. We saw lots of great Mazdas and met tons of enthusiasts which drove all makes and models. We did our best to convince the fans Mazdas are the best.

August came around and we headed off to the MOCC sponsored Mazfest at the Autoclub Speedway for an entire day of autocrossing and a car show. There were plenty of Mazda race cars brought out for the event along with a wide range of street cars. There were a few track mishaps including a Mazdaspeed 3 which got some damage to its bumper. Big thanks to the CorkSport customers who loaned us their vehicle to display in our booth for the day.

September brought up the Mazdas NW End of Summer Bash which was held on a sunny September day at CorkSport and included a dyno day, Mazda car show, and BBQ. It is always fun to see the Mazdas that show up at our events. The NW has quite the collection of Mazdas that are not daily driven. Big thanks to Mazdas NW for putting on the show.

The most recent event we attended was the Epic East Coast Mazda Meet at the Tail of the Dragon in North Carolina. If you ever want to get your twisties on in your Mazda, this is the place to go. I would have loved to bring some of the CorkSport vehicles to this event to tear it up with the rest of the attendees. The whole event spanned 5 days. CorkSport came out east for Saturday’s festivities that included a car show, a run on the tail of the dragon, and a Halloween BBQ.

If you want to see more pictures from the events you can view albums from each event on our CorkSport Facebook page.

Are you hosting or planning on an event in 2012? Let us know, we are always interested in what events are going on in the Mazda community and you never know, we just might show up.

-Derrick