MICHEL FORTIER

Sure, the Naples Winter Wine Festival is, by name, all about the wine.

But the festival’s auction has long been about the cars. The past few years have seen the latest offerings from the likes of Maserati and Bentley auctioned off for enormous sums. Last year, the first Bentley Brooklands coupe to be sold in the United States brought in $450,000.

In 2006, collectors spent $3.3 million on two cars at the auction, $2 million for the first Rolls-Royce Drophead Coupe and $1.3 million for a Bentley Continental GTC.

So scrolling through the auction lots, I was surprised to find that this year’s hot car was an Audi.

An Audi?!

I know the recession is hitting everyone’s wallet pretty hard, but there’s a big difference between a Rolls (the car of choice for heads of state, tycoons and oligarchs worldwide) and Audis (the car of choice of dermatologists and corporate lawyers).

To be sure, Audis are nothing to sneeze at. They have a reputation as high-quality performance sedans. And they have that cool new commercial where Jason Statham tries various luxury getaway cars until making a successful escape in a new Audi S8.

Still, the company’s entry-level A3 starts at a reasonable $27,000. There’s no such thing as an entry-level Bentley.

Then I saw a picture of the car the festival was auctioning off — the Audi R8. With it’s Lamborghini-esque hull and futuristic styling it looks more in line with an exotic sports car than something your podiatrist would drive.

When talking to the wine festival’s public relations folks I had one question — “Can I test drive it?”

I expected to be shot down immediately. Instead I was met with a chorus of “I don’t see why not.” So on a sunny January afternoon, I headed to Audi of Naples to get a closer look.

Sales manager Troy Head gave me the lowdown on the tech specs (zero to 60 in 4.4 seconds, top speed 187 miles per hour, but not the 15 miles per gallon fuel economy) plus a lot of other surely important numbers and details, all of which I pretended to understand lest they revoke my test-driving privileges.

Then Head took me for a spin. He deftly maneuvered the car through the winding road behind the Naples Airport.

Then it was my turn. Head let me take the car out in more real-world driving situations, also known as Airport-Pulling Road at 2 p.m. So much for my dream of getting that puppy up to 150 miles per hour.