THE FIREMAN & the Supermodel; How It Went When Audi Fan Bud Moyers Dated the R8 of His Dreams.(News)

Byline: PETE LYONS

Capt. Doyle "Bud'' Moyers of the Kern County Fire Department 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, California, 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.