Fresh off a big win in Japan, IRL driver Tony Kanaan stopped off in LA to visit Alpine Electronics last Monday morning. The amiable Kanaan traded quips with Alpine's Steve Witt (who volunteered to join the Andretti Green team as Kanaan's official sunglass polisher; Kanaan in turn expressed interest in interning with Steve Brown after taking a drive in the Imprint RLS) and congratulated their work on the Acura navi system.
But the Alpine gang was more interested in his latest win, in which he and his team (Kanaan stressed the importance of teamwork in winning races) used a fuel conservation strategy to bring back the top prize. Kanaan's not all about open-wheel racing, though, and appreciates a variety of high-speed pursuits. Starting as a kart racer at a young age, he made his way up to Formula and, now, IndyCar racing. He also appreciates the rally car circuit ("They're real drivers!" Kannan says), watches NASCAR and has tried drifting in his personal vehicles, watching drifting DVDs for pointers.
Long-time CA&E readers know that Kanaan also loves ICE. The man's always working on projects, despite being home only an average of 2 days in the season to work in his shop. Currently on the operating table are an Acura TL and a BMW M3. He plans to upgrade the entire package for each vehicle. For specialized performance parts he can turn to his team mechanics, but for the mobile electronics he'll have to go elsewhere. Will Kanaan be producing an Imprint RLS caliber vehicle of his own? We'll keep an eye on him.