Auto Reviews

By PETE LYONS
How it went when Audi fan Bud Moyers dated the R8 of his dreams
Capt. Doyle “Bud” Moyers of the Kern County Fire Depart-ment knows that first impressions are important. Weighing how to dress for his long-anticipated date with a spectacular European supermodel, he said he was thinking of a shirt that said, “Drive it like ya stole it!”

Instead, he pulled out his favorite T-shirt, a still-bright keepsake of the Marre wildfire that threatened Michael Jackson’s infamous Neverland Ranch in 1993.

Moyers pulled it onto his taut firefighter’s frame, and Studley Bud–that’s his e-mail handle–was ready to meet the exotic car that had been haunting his heart for months.

“Win a Date with a Supermodel!” was a contest AutoWeek launched last July. To get hooked up with “the breathtakingly beautiful, sensual, sexy and sleek Audi R8,” would-be swains had to describe where they’d take the 420-hp supercar, how they’d treat it and what cars were in their garages that would make the R8 jealous–or make it feel right at home.

Out of more than 900 entries, many resonant with breathless fantasy, one stood out for its selflessness. Sara Moyers, a 26-year-old mom-to-be in Bakersfield, Califor-nia, grew up in an Audi-owning family, married a guy who also drove one and longed for a TT of her own. But what she wrote about was her courageous father and his long-standing enthusiasm for Audis.

Bud Moyers had owned nine of them in 22 years and currently had three. He loved them all, she loved him, and if anyone deserved to date an R8, it was her wonderful dad, she wrote.

“I sent it off and never thought anything would come of it,” Sara Moyers remembers nine months later. “Then, right around Christmas, Dutch Mandel called.”

The date began the afternoon of March 21, when the jet-blue metallic R8, with R-tronic transmission, optional 19-inch wheels and $134,545 sticker, rolled up to the family’s brand-new Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli restaurant in Bakersfield. It happened to be the fifth anniversary of Sara Moyers’ marriage to Joseph Dean, and that eager young man was standing right there, panting to drive. But when his wife was handed the key, she immediately turned and ceremoniously bestowed it on her grinning father.

“I live to drive. It’s one of the biggest pleasures I have,” asserted Bud Moyers. “Tractors when I was a kid in Iowa, tanks in the Army, 18-wheelers, motorcycles, the big fire engines we call pavement queens–pretty much anything with wheels, I’ve driven it.”

Moyers’ love affair with Audis began more than 25 years ago, when he rode in one through nearby Kern Canyon, a twisted, heaving two-lane with many unguarded drops to the white-water river. He warned the driver that the road would make him sick, but his stomach stayed settled. “I thought, ‘I gotta get one of these!’”

His first was a 1979 Fox. His stable includes an ‘86 5000 Turbo Quattro with 200,000 miles, a ‘95 S6 with 150,000 miles–”It’ll still do 130″–and his favorite long-distance runner, a 2000 A8L, which hasn’t yet turned 60K. All three are black. They share yard space with his three Harley-Davidsons, six dirt bikes of assorted types and his wife Alley’s ‘90 Corvette.

Settled into the R8, Moyers aimed it straight for Kern Canyon. But even before he reached the old Merle Haggard home at the mouth of the can-yon, he knew the car was true to its breed. “It’s got the whole Audi thing. You think where you want to go, and it goes.”

Into that evening and then all the next day, Moyers drove the R8 everywhere he could think of, all around town, out onto the 99 freeway, into the wildflower-spangled Sierra foot-hills. He did explore the car’s envelope, but, he remarked, “This car is so nice to drive just casually. The pleasure of driving an Audi is you know you got the giddyup when you want it, but you don’t have to drive it hard.”

Whatever the pace, Moyers was a perfect gentleman to his date, driving comfortably, neatly and with deep enjoyment.

Capt. Moyers made a special point of stopping at two neighborhood fire stations, where he tried to pass the R8 off as his own. “Yup, restaurant’s doin’ real well.”

Bakersfield is alive with street rods and tricked-out trucks; the Audi darted among them like a spacecraft. Heads whirled. Cell cams clicked. Girls lit up. Guys in Mustangs wanted to race.

Everybody in the family was itching to drive the supercar, and Moyers amiably gave up his seat. Joseph Dean, whose own Audi is an enthusiastic-ally driven ‘86 4000, couldn’t stop raving: “This car is insane! It looks like you flew it in from Mars! That engine is like the coolest sound ever, like a monster in there! This is the baddest daily driver on the entire planet. It’s everything Audi’s ever done packed into one car.”

Sara Moyers got out after her drive looking pensive. “I don’t want a TT anymore. We’ll never get a house . . .”

Her son, Miles, seven months old, tried out the driver’s seat, too. He appeared to like it.

Bud Moyers’ son Chris Ross, who dreams of an RS4 but drives a Volks-wagen Passat, noted, “This car is so intuitive. Everything is placed where it should be. Oops–I’m going 100 mph.”

Family friend Matthew Hollis, the AW subscriber who originally called Sara Moyers’ attention to the contest and who drives a very hot Subaru WRX, got his reward, too. “This is a head turner!”

Alley Moyers, the C4 Corvette owner, just smiled demurely and said, “Nice.” So it would appear that Bud Moyers’ getting an R8 would be okay with the wife.

Could this R8 date lead to a long-term relationship? Bud Moyers smiled at the question but pondered it seriously. He spoke about retiring next year at age 54, because “firefighting is a young man’s business,” but, he said, “I like the activity, and I’m an adrenaline junky. When people are running out of burning buildings, we’re runnin’ in there. It’s fun. I’m going to have to find something to replace it.”

Whatever he finds will be fine with his daughter. At the end of this magical day, she said, “I hope you saw a little of how amazing my dad is. He’s my hero.”