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JEREMY D'AMBROSIO MOVED to Southern California from Pittsburgh, about to start classes at the prestigious Art Center College of Design. On the way to his new apartment, he drove his rental car right past what would become intertwined with his life--a 1999 Mazda Miata, silver, parked in a driveway. Around 20,000 miles. Pristine.
"It was owned by an older gentleman who had all three generations: NA, NB and NC," he said. "All the same color. And his wife was yelling at him, she didn't understand why they had three of the same car in their garage! So he got rid of two and kept the NC."
He ditched the rental car, took a taxi to the Miata and bought it on the spot.
D'Ambrosio found himself in the automobile-modification world--broke, impatient, willing to risk new things: "I really wanted to mod the car, but I had that new-car ownership problem of just wanting to do it now," he said. On went cheapo Racelands coilovers--"Ricelands," the kids call 'em, derisively--and XXR wheels, one set after another, "the entire product line," D'Ambrosio laughed. Slammed to the ground, scraping everywhere, throwing up sparks. "The first forum I found was ClubRoadster, and that's like the style. I was like, 'Oh, I guess that's the cool thing to do.' So I did it. And then I realized that you couldn't drive the car anymore."
Eight months of ground-scraping passed. Then, while walking across the street one day, D'Ambrosio was nearly killed in an accident.
His friends know he doesn't like to talk about it--a strange, errant, unforeseen blip in a man's life. Nevertheless, an accident like that changes your perspective. "The shockwave from everything that happened, I was like, 'OK, I want to enjoy myself a little bit.' I was still going to school, but I took lighter terms--I just wanted to play around a little bit. So I started tinkering with the car a lot more, and that's ... that's when the car got ridiculous."
MAKING IT YOUR OWN
D'Ambrosio's car is now an object of wonder. A Rotrex supercharger supplies around 250 hp, atop a full AST Xida coilover setup.
The aluminum hood has been stripped of paint and polished to a gleam. A tow hook juts...