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Bighearted enthusiast rescues stranger's Mazda RX-7 from floods

With Tropical Storm Cristobal charting a path for the Gulf Coast, a Biloxi, Mississippi, local named Khuong Nguyen wanted to get his FD-series Mazda RX-7 out of the storm — the coupe had some bad seals that would let in rain. He parked the orange and black coupe in the bottom story of a parking garage at the city's Golden Nugget Casino, which kept the rain from getting in. But Cristobal came on stronger than expected, creating a new threat of water from below when the parking garage began to flood. Austin Owens, a Gulfport resident about 10 miles from Biloxi, saw photos of the RX-7 with water up to its rockers on a local Cars and Coffee page. As he would later tell Jalopnik, the RX-7 being one of Owens' dream cars, he decided he needed to rescue it. Just to make sure we're all on the same page, a young man braved a tropical storm in his own vehicle to save a stranger's RX-7 in another city. Owens dragooned a friend and hopped in a Ford Bronco, dodging closed roads and fording three or four feet of water on open roads. They drove to Home Depot to pick up cinder blocks, then headed to the Golden Nugget parking garage. As Owens and his friend arrived, they met Nguyen and a couple of his friends pulling Nguyen's second car, a Ferrari 360, out of the garage on a trailer. The RX-7 had already been set on wood blocks, thin bricks, and some orange wheel chocks, but the stilt job wasn't high enough in front; the water in parts of the garage was knee deep. Owens jacked up the RX-7 to get the cinder blocks under the front wheels; the rear end was fine, due to the slope of the garage floor. Success. As one of Nguyen's friends told Jalopnik, Owens' actions "did give us adequate time to combat the rising water." The success came at a cost, though, Owens reporting, "We actually killed the [BroncoÂ’s] transmission on the way out. We actually had to drive in second gear all the way home" due to floodwater seeping into the transmission. He has no regrets, explaining his derring-do with, “ItÂ’s a rare car ... I would hope somebody would do the same for me if I was in the situation with a car of that stature. I didnÂ’t have it in my heart to leave it there." With the story blowing up on Facebook, he told the legion of enthusiasts sending their respects, "Appreciate the love, but IÂ’d expect the same for one of my cars," followed by, "Alright, whoÂ’s down for some Forza?" Save for the original seal issue, the RX-7 came out of the storm with no issues.

Tow truck driver hilariously bad at righting a flipped Mazda

Can rolling your car get any worse? The correct answer is yes, as this poor soul found out when he rolled his Mazda3 onto its side. Calling a tow truck might be a logical, post-rollover move, but in this case, it kind of made the situation worse.
We don't want to give away just what happened, so you'll need to scroll down and watch the video. A fair warning, though, it does contain a moment of colorful language towards the end, so watching it at work, with the volume up, might not be wise. Have a look below for the full video.

AWD Mazda6 or Mazda3? That could be a thing, but there's a problem

We wanted a stronger engine in the Mazda6, and last week at the L.A. Auto Show we got one, Mazda's turbocharged 2.5-liter four. (Though some of us wanted a manual transmission with it, but didn't get that.) And now we learn that apparently a lot of us would like to have all-wheel drive in Mazda's sedans. That might be a tough ask, but Mazda says it hears us. In an interview with CarAdvice, Masahiro Moro, Mazda North America's president and CEO, said there's a big demand in the U.S. for AWD, so Mazda's looking into it. Ah, but maybe we can't have everything. "I think we are not able to combine four-wheel drive and the 2.5-liter turbo. We have a layout issue with the sedans, that's why a four-wheel drive isn't deployed on the Mazda 3 and 6 so far," Moro said. "But there is a huge demand, at least what I know is that in the East Coast of the USA, 80 or 90 percent of premium sedans are sold with all-wheel drive." And with Mazda going upscale, it only makes sense to give upscale, performance-oriented customers what they want, like the AWD sedans the German premium brands have been offering for years. "Four-wheel drive becomes a premium cue for U.S. consumers," said Moro, "and obviously I have asked our R&D department to think about how we can accommodate four-wheel drive capability in the future." Though the CX-9, being a crossover, of course has AWD in combination with that turbo engine, it simply must not have the platform limitations of the sedans. And all-wheel drive in the Mazda6, at least, has been available in Japan, Europe and Australia, but paired with the Skyactiv-D and another smaller engine, diesels we don't get here. Moro's statement leaves open the possibility of AWD with the base 2.5-liter engine, but maybe not. Besides, a premium buyer would want the turbo. So, when Moro says the future, he means not now, not in the Mazda6 facelift we just saw. But maybe in the next big redesign? Or maybe the configuration problems will be easier to overcome when working with the innovative new 2.0-liter Skyactiv-X compression-ignition engine that's expected in the 2019 Mazda3. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Featured Gallery 2018 Mazda6: LA 2017 View 16 Photos Image Credit: Drew Phillips / Autoblog Auto News Mazda Technology Emerging Technologies Performance Sedan