Good Samaritan Saves Stranger’s RX-7 From Flood Waters

The Mazda FD RX-7, one of the best cars to come out of the 1990's, fitted with a rotary motor with two turbos, is one of the most sought after Japanese tune cars in the world. Let's put it this way; a 1994 model sells for about $37,000.

Someone shared a photo of a RX-7 in a parking ramp at the Biloxi Golden Nugget Casino in Gulfport, Mississippi shortly before tropical storm Cristobal had fully arrived, and the garage was already starting to take on floodwater. Austin Owens knew it would only be a matter of time before the water would reach the car.

So, with no clue if the owner had plans to save the car, and no idea who the owner is, Austin got to work, running to a nearby Home Depot.

He bought cinder blocks and a Pittsburgh floor jack, and threw them in the back of his Ford Bronco. Austin drove back to the garage, through floodwaters, and put the car up on the cinder blocks.

Shortly after he finished, he noticed a silver 7 Series BMW and a black Ferrari 360 parked nearby.

It turned out the owner of the Ferrari and the owner of the RX-7 are brothers, and they showed up with a single-car trailer not long after Aaron did. The RX-7 stayed through the flooding, and the Ferrari was able to be saved before the water got too high.

Aaron shared his experience saving the car in a Forza Horizon 4 Facebook group. From there, word got out to the Biloxi Cars and Coffee group, and the owner was identified.

The owner said the rotary motor was newly built, and the paint job was less than a month old. The brothers decided the casino parking lot would be safe, because the RX-7 has a bad leak in the trunk's seal, so they figured it would ride the rain out better if it was covered.

At the time, the car only had liability insurance.

Aaron told WLOX that he doesn't think he's a hero, but hopes if he had a car like that in the same position, someone else would do the same.

"I wouldn’t consider myself a hero by any means. I would hope that if I had a car of that stature hiding in a parking garage with a tropical storm that somebody would reach out and try to do something to get it off the ground."

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