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Around the tracks: A valiant RX-7 rescue and a stolen Dodge Challenger

Plus, Black Lives Matter livery at NASCAR, Peugeot's 'page not found' gag and a Tesla owner's bold move.


When we’re not creating it ourselves, the CarAdvice team spends a lot of time finding and consuming motoring content from all over the world.

Here’s a handful of the photos, articles, videos or social media posts that most caught our eye last week. Some of them are brand new, others have been online for a while.

Enjoy them – just not too much, okay?


1. This man rescuing a stranger's Mazda RX-7 from a tropical storm

Just when you starting losing faith in humanity, a story like this one comes along to restore it.

In a recent act of good samaritan-ship receiving attention online this week, a US man helped to save a stranger's Mazda RX-7 from near-certain demise during a Mississippi flood.

The RX-7 was parked in the parking lot of a local casino during Tropical Storm Cristobal this month, where it was spotted by onlookers concerned by its plight.

When its owner tried and failed to rescue the car by jacking it up above the water level, self-described RX-7 lover Austin Owens arrived to save the day.

As reported by Motortrend: "Prior to the owner's arrival, someone else had spotted the RX-7 in the garage as it began to flood and posted photos to the local Cars and Coffee Facebook group. Upon seeing the images, Owens reportedly grabbed a friend and a jack, got in his truck, bought some cinder blocks at a hardware store, and forded through Biloxi's flooded streets to save what he calls his '#dreamcar'."

The owner later posted about the good deed on Facebook, writing: "Those guys were pretty cool in bringing in cinder blocks to help hold the car up high enough until everything recedes. I only have liability insurance so I would've lost a lot."

Meanwhile, Owens' official statement was: "Appreciate the love but I'd expect the same for one of my cars."

Hey Google, play Mariah Carey's 'Hero'.


2. This failed Dodge Challenger theft

A note to car thieves: if you're going to steal a car by ramming it through a window, do your maths on the dimensions first, Or, you know, don't try and steal it at all.

Car thieves in Illinois learned this the hard way when they attempted to take a 50th anniversary edition Dodge Challenger out of a dealership – unsuccessfully.

A dealership employee shared the results of the heist in a photo posted to Reddit with the caption: "Last night someone tried to steal a car from the dealership I work at."

The photo prompted plenty of comparisons to the iconic Gone in 60 Seconds scene in which lead character Kip Raines steals a Porsche 911 by driving it through the window of the dealership.

You can relive that scene below, but let the Illinois incident (The Illinois Incident is my new band name - Stevo) serve as a reminder that movie magic rarely translates to real life.


3. This NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro in Black Lives Matter livery

Unless you've been living under a project-car-sized rock for the past few weeks, you'll know that the United States – and the rest of the world, for that matter – is in the midst of much-needed and very overdue reckoning when it comes to race relations.

As protestors take to the streets and social media in the wake of the police killing of African American man George Floyd, one NASCAR driver found his own way to protest the treatment of people of colour in his country.

Bubba Wallace – widely known for being one of the most successful African American drivers in NASCAR history – was a major force behind NASCAR's decision to ban the Confederate flag from its races and venues this week.

“I’ve seen too many comments and too many stories from first-time fans that come to a race in years past and the first thing they say, ‘I’ve seen the Confederate flag flying and it made me feel uncomfortable,’” Wallace said on the Today show.

Following NASCAR's decision to ban the flag, Wallace once again made history by completing a race on Wednesday in the US with his Chevrolet Camaro adorned in a special Black Lives Matter paint scheme.

Along with the words 'Black Lives Matter' down the side of the car, the bonnet was emblazoned with the words, "Compassion, Love, Understanding”.


4. This Tesla owner's self-charging trailer

Interested in an electric car but worried about charging it? We don't blame you.

Given most electric cars can take all night to charge on an average wall socket and the network of available fast chargers in Australia isn't yet as wide-ranging as other countries, you could be forgiven for feeling your options are limited.

But allow YouTuber and Tesla owner ItsYeBoi to convince you there are other ways – they just happen to be a bit less, well, subtle.

ItsYeBoi decided to turn his Tesla Model 3 into a solar-powered car by attaching it to a trailer covered in solar panels.

You can watch the whole complicated and, frankly, pretty ridiculous process in the video below, which results in a large, somewhat hideous solar trailer that surprisingly works – albeit slowly – to charge the car.

The video is a worthy watch, especially the part at the start where ItsYeBoi makes a faux plea to the camera: "Elon, please, notice me..."


5. Peugeot's clever 'page not found' gag

It turns out having a funny 'page not found' message on your website is something of a sport amongst automotive brands.

Some of the best ones are documented in this article, but we'd like to make a case for Peugeot taking the top spot.

Why? Because this is what you get when there's a '404 error' on the Peugeot site:

(I guess we need to do something special with ours, now! - Stevo)


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Susannah Guthrie

Susannah Guthrie has been a journalist for over a decade, covering everything from world news to fashion, entertainment, health and now cars. Having previously worked across titles like The New Daily, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, People Magazine and Cosmopolitan, Susannah now relishes testing family cars with the help of her husband and two-year-old son.

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