1990 Subaru Justy — The MazdaRu

The Car That Keeps Coming Back

This Justy has a history with me that predates the channel. It originally belonged to my best friend in high school — the kind of car with a personality before you even turn the key. Just before getting married, his family passed it along to me. The plan was a light restoration. Then a 1981 Subaru GL appeared — my own high school car — and suddenly owning two two-door Subarus while moving to a new city and preparing for marriage felt like exactly the kind of bad idea the channel is named after. The Justy found a new home in 2016.

Fast forward to 2022. The day before my second child was born, a neighbor mentioned her uncle had an old Subaru sitting behind his shop — urgent situation, heading to the scrapyard, free to a good home. Free changed everything. Jaime and I drove over knowing almost nothing about it: two doors, old Subaru. On the way there, I started doing the math. The previous owner lived in Lebanon. The timeline lined up. We pulled up and confirmed what I already suspected — it was the exact same car.

Phase 1 — The D16 Swap

The plan was straightforward: pull a Honda D16 from a buddy's Civic and drop it in. The D16 is one of the most well-documented, parts-rich four-cylinders ever made — a logical choice for a car that was never meant to be logical. A couple of friends got the D16 in place, functional wiring followed, and then reality arrived in the form of custom-fabricated suspension and axles. Getting those made for a Justy-Honda hybrid wasn't something I wanted to price out. The project paused.

Phase 2 — The Body Swap & Rotary Era

After sitting for a couple of years while wilder ideas came and went — motorcycle engine, full body swap, the usual — the body swap concept finally won. The Justy body came off. Underneath it went a 2000 Mazda Miata chassis that already had a rotary engine in it. The guy said it was "mostly done."

It was not mostly done. The rotary was in unknown condition, parts were missing, and the engine — designed to sit low and far back in an RX-7 — was mounted so far into the cab that it probably wasn't feasible. After a significant amount of fabrication work, the rotary chapter closed.

Phase 3 — The 1.6 Miata Engine

I bought a second Miata — a 1992 with the durable 1.6 — specifically as a parts car. The 1.6 is now sitting in the Justy. The bottom half of the car is a combination of the 2000 and 1992 Miata platforms. The driveline is attached. The top half is a Subaru Justy body. It's a lot of fun and we're honestly not quite sure what to do with it in the future.

Throughout this whole process it's been a wild ride — and we've got 37 videos to prove it. The path forward is genuinely undecided, which at this point feels completely appropriate for a car that has refused every attempt to give it a clear destiny.