To the left: a Mercedes Benz CLK 63 AMG Black Series Coupé. To the right: a BMW M3. They represent the owners matching his-and hers "daily drivers". Both cars are low-slung and black-on-black, trimmed in carbon fiber.
With throaty growls when fired, the two appear to stand guard like a security detail, flanking their protected prize: a pearl white Ferrari 458. Staring menacingly out from the corner of the building like a snarling, cornered leopard, the custom-ordered Italian rig is a racer's racer, complete with a carbon fiber hull and trim.
The bucket seats wear the stitched personal emblem of its owner - IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan.
The rear deck displays not only the imposing 562 horsepower engine, but also the signatures of every hand that participated in the building of the car, in metallic silver pen on the carbon side panels. At the back is a Florida vanity plate: TK 11.
The scene is matched at Kanaan's apartment, overlooking the glimmering Atlantic waters in nearby Key Biscayne. Littering the living room and kitchen entryway is more carbon fiber - this time in the form of bikes.
Four gleaming Trek Speed Concepts - all with custom paint jobs and fitted with race wheels - lie along white walls throughout the room, poised like resting falcons. A belt-drive mountain bike is set across from a black-and-pink Trek belonging to Kanaan's fiancée, Lauren.
All told, Kanaan has nine cars - all choice setups including Escalades and Porsche Cayennes - scattered across homes in Miami, Brazil and team headquarters in Indianapolis.
And bikes? Ten. No 11. He forgot to count Julie Dibens 2011 Kona race rig he bought as a decorative keepsake, and that beautiful carbon fiber belt-drive "pit bike" that only saw a few days in the pits after team mechanics were tooling around at races and dumping it against walls as though it were a $75 Huffy.
Standing in a room filled with over $1 million worth of automotive lust, the affable Brazilian thinks about the tri collection at home, and chuckles. "Now I have more bikes than cars, thank God."
Built like a bulldog but wearing one of the brightest smiles and a matching personality, Kanaan's name is synonymous with open wheel racing.
Racing go-karts in Brazil from the age of eight, he cut his teeth living in a race shop in italy before coming to America, earning IndyCar Rookie of the Year in 1998 and the 2004 Indy Racing League Series Championship. He's recorded 15 victories, was and Indy 500 pole-sitter and has finished no lower than sixth in the last 10 years.
The 37-year-old is also centerpiece in some of IndyCars's highlight reel episodes, like when he suffered second-degree burns when ethanol fuel ignited on his car and him in Edmonton in 2009. Then there was the incident last years in Baltimore when his car went airbone and sailed over Helio Castroneves in practice after his brake line failed.
"It's a tough sport, "Kanaan says, "and that's why I love it. And I feel lucky to have found another sport that I have a similar kind passion for. I remember the feeling of winning the championship in 2004, and it was absolutely unbelievable. But to just finish, no even win, but to just finish the Ironman in Kona? That was amazing. I'll never forget it."
Kannan sits down at the desk in his Miami office. Opposite him sit a colorful cacophony of shelved racing helmets belonging to Danica Patrick, Helio Castroneves and Paul Tracy, all worn with the nicks and dings from 500 miles of racing at over 200 mph.
