Recently, Trevor and I were invited to house sit for a friend in Oahu, Hawaii. Of course it was an easy ‘yes’ from us. Anytime we travel, though, I am always on the lookout for cool and interesting cars.

You can learn loads about a community simply from the cars that sit on its streets, but arriving at night we weren’t afforded this opportunity. However, as the sun came up over the mountains the next morning, I peered out my window and spotted something interesting.

It was a little yellow wagon, but in the dark morning light I couldn’t quite tell what it was. A Corona wagon? No, not quite…

Could it be a Mazda RX-3? They’re rare enough as coupes and sedans, but I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a wagon before, so to find one sitting right under my nose seemed dubious at best.

I went downstairs to get a closer look, and sure enough my suspicions were confirmed.

The more I investigated the thing, the cooler the situation became. Ironically, the wagon had Oregon license plates, meaning that we flew to the middle of the Pacific Ocean to find a car that once lived in the state Trevor and I now call home.

I secretly hoped the wagon was a piston-powered variant, but only for the sake of being able to use Mazda 808 in 808 — the local area code — in the title.

However, everyone has a thing for rotaries, myself included, so I was hardly disappointed to find out it was a genuine RX-3 wagon, and therefore has a little spinning triangle to make it move.

It also felt like good timing to stumble on such a neat rotary-powered car, because that same morning an article popped up on my phone about a rule update for the Le Mans hypercar class that will allow rotary engines to race at Circuit de la Sarthe again.

Something tells me this thing won’t be racing through the famous French road course any time soon. In fact, I’m not sure if it even runs at all, as it hasn’t moved in the week I’ve been watching. But it’s still guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of any automotive-inclined passersby.

I know that’s what happened when I saw it, but only after some raised eyebrows.

Sara Ryan
Instagram: pockowokosara