Car Feature>> Pit Crew + Rs Aizawa. In The Atl!

Pit Crew? RS Aizawa? In Atlanta Georgia?! WHAT! Okay! (you have to read that part in Lil Jon’s voice)

It’s hard for me to imagine I shot this car way back in 2005. After stumbling into it on the internet, I immediately made contact with the car’s owner, Peter Brusa, because I knew I’d be going to Formula D in Atlanta, where the car lives. (Peter lives there too.) I originally shot Peter’s car for a feature in Grassroots Motorsports Magazine a few years back. However, since it’s Mazda month on Speedhunters, I thought I’d dig up these photos once again so I could share them with people who missed the GRM issue it appeared in.

At first glance looking at Peter’s car, some people might be confused as to exactly what it is. In case you were wondering, no, it’s not a Karmann Ghia. Nope, it’s not a Lotus. It’s actually a 1995 Mazda Miata, covered in Laguna Blue paint, with a tan leather package (originally referred to as Mazda’s C package, Peter tells me his car is one of only 122 made with this combination from the factory.

Of course, you may be wondering what the deal is with the front end – it’s a Pitcrew Racing fiberglass front end, which Peter painstakingly imported from Japan.

Can you believe that such a car exists… in Atlanta, Georgia of all places? After all, the ATL isn’t normally associated with cleanly built Japanese cars; it’s probably better known for its peaches, delicious turnip greens at Cracker Barrel, sweet tea at QuikTrip, lemon pepper wings at JR Crickets, down south barbecue at Daddy D’z, and because it’s the hometown of Outkast, Justene Jaro (uhmm.. anyone got scans of her recent magazine feature btw?) and some pretty annoying dirty south rap groups.

With an engine bay this clean, you could definitely eat off of it! Peter might not be too happy at the thought of someone eating some Waffle House off of his car though. Let’s see some of the engine goodies… HKS adjustable camgears, HKS -Con Pro V ECU, lightened flywheel, powdercoated cam cover, billet oil catchcan, KG Works oil cap, R-speed performance plug wires, and a bunch more stuff that I haven’t listed.

Just so you don’t think this car is all just accessories, maybe I should mention some of its suspension components – Ground Control coilovers, Koni shocks, Beatrush rear PPF lateral bar, Carbing transmission/chassis brace, and a set of Jackson Racing tubular swaybars.

I just love this gauge display. This car has a lot of great details. What we’re looking at here is a Version Maruyama AWD gauge face set. These gauge faces make the car look a bit older, for more of that nostalgic roadster feel, along with AWD stainless needle caps for a nice finishing touch. Surrounding the nostalgic font gauges is the incredibly awesome looking KG Works stainless steel gauge cluster bezel. If I owned a Miata, then there’s no doubt I would NEED to own one of these KG Works bezels. Sooooo damn cool.

This top view definitely shows that Peter’s Miata has a ton of detail inside. I don’t blame him for doing so – the interior of a car is the most intimate part of the car… it’s what you’re constantly touching and feeling. Check out those Nakamae leather door handles – that’s definitely different from what you normally see in a Miata.

The chrome vent rings inside the car are from IL Motorsport, and surrounding the air vents is a really classy looking Rosewood center console setup. Notice the AWD stainless steel A/C panel, and the KG Works A/C slider caps? This car has some detail!

To the left of the dash cluster, you’ll notice a Speedograph Vaccuum gauge. Hopefully that gauge will be replaced by a matching VDO unit in the future?

This must be my absolute favorite rearview mirror for the Miata. It’s cool as hell! It’s accessory details like this that would make me inspired to buy a Miata. Don’t worry, I don’t think I will be buying one anytime soon, but seriously, this IL Motorsport vintage sliding mirror is cool as hell. When you pull up to a stoplight next to another Miata, chances are the guys (or girl) in the Miata next to you will be jocking your rearview mirror! What an awesome idea, to make the interior of the car look that much cooler.

Whenever Peter has road rage, he just lays on the horn, pressing this super cool vintage Mazda horn button. I bet a lot of RX2 and RX3 owners don’t even have this rare piece, and they’re the ones who need this interesting vintage style adder! Peter certainly did a good job with finding rare bits and pieces for his Miata to keep his car a few paces ahead of (dare I say it) the Southern Cali Miata crowd. The wooden Nardi Classic 360 steering wheel is a nice touch, matching the Rosewood wood trim kit on the center console.

This factory Rosewood brake handle and Nakamae leather boot surrounding it is yet another style adder that sets Peter’s car apart from the rest of the crowd. It gives the distinguished gentleman roadster image to the Miata interior, as do the Nakamae vintage center console, leather seat covers, and chrome shift knob.

In front of the shifter are some nice looking vintage VDO gauges: vaccuum gauge, voltmeter, and a clock so Peter can let other Miata owners know what time it is.

The car also has a Blaupunkt CD player and MB Quart reference speakers, but since this isn’t Car Audio or PASmag, I won’t get too into that stuff.

Here’s a close up of the custom Sola chrome shift knob, with vintage Mazda logo in the middle. I think this piece looks awesome. I’m a big fan of coordinating the horn button and shift knob on a car. Great job, Peter! Good style, man.

More cool details on Peter’s Miata include the Pit Crew Racing “Member’s” keychain. Normally grammatical errors such as this would look unprofessional to me, but they’re from Japan. I think incorrect grammar adds to the cool points of their parts! haha

Representing local shops in the ATL, Peter uses an R speed air/fuel ratio meter on the steering column to keep an eye on how his engine is running. I wish this unit was mounted somewhere else, because it gets in the way when I’m trying to admire that gorgeous KG Works gauge cluster bezel.

RSA vin plate on the firewall? Soooo cool. Seriously.

Soooo money. I’m sure all Miata guys who are viewing this are jocking it hard! This here is a rare and expensive RS Aizawa individual throttle body setup. Everything is made from billet aluminum, including the fuel rail, manifold, and air horns. I dig the cool looking linkage above the ITBs, and the throttle cable pulley system is just as slick. Of course, Peter won’t settle for mediocrity, so his car also uses stainless steel braided fuel lines with Aeroquip fittings. Baller.

No, they aren’t Nerf tennis balls. They’re actually air filters, and I think they’re some of the coolest ITB air filters I’ve seen! Nice strut bar too, from Beatrush. Peter is what you call an “automotive label whore.” But not a dirty whore, his engine bay is super clean!

I’m impressed with the flanges on that Racing Beat 4-1 stainless header! Damn, that thing looks beefy!

Even the rear sidemarker is covered with a stainless steel plate. This car has stainless everywhere.

The wheel in the background is actually a 15×7 Panasport wheel, wrapped in 195/50/R15 Toyo T1-S tires.

Notice the nice chrome bezel around the rear brake “fog lamp” from Zoom Engineering. Nice touch.

It might be hard to tell from this photo, but if you look at the gas cap on the left side, you’ll notice that Peter installed a BSP stainless gas cap as another piece to give the car more of a vintage look. The small lip wing on the trunk is actually a factory Mazda R-package deck spoiler, which looks very nice with this setup. Notice the center exhaust from Zoom? Peter imported that from Japan too.

Continuing the theme from inside the car is a small vintage Mazda emblem, with a Pitcrew racing emblem underneath it. On the right side, we have the factory Japanese Eunos emblem, with a Nostalgic Hero “Racing Mate” sticker above it. Man, that’s a lot of emblems/stickers for such a small area, it’s sure to keep people driving behind Peter squinting, trying to read what they all say.

Here’s a close up of the Pit Crew front end, and the 7 inch Lucas replica P700 “tri-pod” headlamps, which have 55/65w bulbs in them with city lights as well.

See the chrome bullet side mirrors? Thise are actually chrome mirrors from an Alfa Romeo, which have been matched to Miata baseplates.

Peter knows exactly what I’d say about the wheel size and offset, but I’d have to say that his Miata is very, very impressive because of all the attention to detail in the build and rarity of parts involved. A build of this caliber is a lot more difficult than ones that just involve throwing some coilovers and wheels on the car, so I think Peter deserves some respect for what he’s accomplished. Just think, it’s not easy to achieve a build with so many rare Japanese parts… and especially when you’re located in Atlanta! It just goes to show, where there’s a will, there’s a way. This is a car that any Miata owner would be proud to own!

-Antonio Alvendia

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1

By far the classiest miata I have ever seen!!! It looks like it should be in Britain driving on the B roads instead of in the ATL. Only thing that could make this car better is if they moved the side mirrors to the fenders. Then it would be super classy!

2

So does this give any credit to the Great City of the South? Atlanta has some great cars you just have to know where to look. Check yourself when talking about Atlanta though, not only is it a great city, its got some loyal inhabitants.

3

I always thought this front end would look better like this: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v110/Mr.Mecha/miatapitcrewaltered.jpg

smoothing out the popup lines.

4

this is great, I really want a miata right about now..

5

thats whats up.

6

this itb setup is hot sex

love the car peter

7

In a totally off topic note.....Buckhead Diner is horrible.

8

WOW! looks great! firstly i thought that its an old school european car,but its mazda mx5! perfect work!

9

I love cars that have a TON of attention to details.

10

You said it has a boost guage? I'm guessing that isn't correct?

11

Peters car!!

I have seen this fine specimen in person many times

He used to work over at rspeed and he built one helll of a car

This is my favorite miata by far



And yes ATL has some of the best cars on the east coast

Dont knock it!

12

i loooooove it! amazing! this car has everything on it that i love: brown leather, retro look, wood trim, did i mention brown leather? amazing paint, leather. so awesome.

13

Absolutely gorgeous! Classy and wicked cool!

14

Absolutely gorgeous! Classy and wicked cool!

15

HAHA guys I wasn't knocking ATL, so sorry if you took it that way! I just think Peter's car is a great example of a car to come out of Atlanta... or any East Coast city for that matter! I have lots of good friends in Atlanta. Oh no, I'm name dropping again. LOL

16

good work peter...makes up for your jalopnik post lol

17

ninja>pirate: damn, u have some photoshop skills!

18

I'm just lost for words. That is one of the most detailed build I ever read anywhere! I mean I don't even know 3/4 of the parts he put on that car. What I thought was a Spec-C front bumper turned out to be a replica or some sort. Also love how he put the stickers on the radiator, looks quite nice actually.....

19

this is 2009, you can build a car with "rare" jdm parts no matter where you live. All you need is money, the internet, and a mailbox. P.S. love the roadster peter, not knocking on u in any way.

20

this got to be the dopest miata I've ever come across.

The details are unbelievable, I love wood interiors,

but they are so hard to make look good.



Great car, great write up/article, this is what

speedhunters is good for, a good read with good pics

on a great car.

21

that is one fine piece of machinery...

22

HURRAYYYY RSPEED!



This car is really cool. Speaking of really cool miatas in ATL, you guys should do a story on Marty's pink/NOS drifting miata.

23

Very clean car, I would love to see it in person. But as a local Atlantian I must say that the scene has grown a lot here. There are quite a few JDM cars rolling around, a hand full of r34's 33's and 32's as well as JDM fd's mine was part of the contribution until it was jacked last year. Like Carter said you just have to know where to look and you can find some really sick rides. And I totally agree with Joey buckhead diner sucks big time.

24

Those Alfa mirrors are highly appropriate - the Pitcrew Racing front end screams Disco Volante. Would look time-warp in red I reckon.

25

Looks great Peter! Congrats on the spread and see you hopefully in April, if not, July at the latest!

26

Does anyone know where i could possibly get those classic Mazda logos?

27

One word: Gorgeous!

28

Who have you met from c- s. org? by Judi What can happen, when you don't rear face.

29

It's unfortunate Peter sold this car.  But what a beauty it was before he let it go.

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