As I focused on the RX-8 race car and a fix-and-flip MR2 project, the Justy didn’t get much attention. Not that it needs a whole lot to keep going—it’s been problem-free since the engine rebuild—but it does have many smaller needs to just make it a better car. I’ve been slowly trying to address these, and I hope 2019 will be The Year of the Justy.


Once it was done, I started rolling it into regular tasks. Like carrying my bike on my way to a ride somewhere.

It’s also great for long-term airport parking, because it’s not worth breaking into. I like parking it next to expensive cars, like… a Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet with a car cover over it.
Unfortunately, I can’t judge the CrossCabriolet owner. I also own a stupid, useless toy car. But it was through these duties that I decided the badass, almost unmuffled side-dump exhaust was not practical.

So, rather than continue to blow out my eardrums trying to beat Grandma’s 4-cylinder Camry away from a stoplight, I decided a more reasonable muffler made sense. I had my local muffler shop weld up the rest of the system. This muffler has decent sound, so it’s actually got a bit of a sporty tone. It’s not completely silent.

Another thing I had to take care of in the name of practicality was the car’s terrible headlights. I had tried better bulbs in the factory housings, but it still spread out a useless blob of short-distance light. Anyone behind me at night would cast a Justy-shaped shadow in front of me. It looks like the reflective material in the factory housings is flaking off, but I wasn’t eager to heat those housings and pull them apart to spray fake-chrome paint on it.

I took more drastic measures and bought a pair of proper LED driving lights. I drilled and tapped holes in the bumper support and just ran the supplied bolt through there.
They’re mounted low, which reduces their range, but I think that makes them usable all the time rather than just together with the high beams, as is recommended. The aim is currently a bit wall-eyed, but I have at least made sure they’re pointing downward so I don’t blind oncoming traffic.
The improvement in nighttime confidence and visibility is immense.
That about catches you up with this car.
As for the MR2, I sold it to my sister-in-law.