In a warehouse building on the outskirts of Palo Alto, Jan Krieg, a dental technician, makes custom crowns and bridges. It’s the kind of nondescript building you see all over Silicon Valley—a place where the next Apple or Google could be brewing. In this case, the garage-like space produces not only ceramic teeth for humans but the occasional tusk for an elephant or set of fangs for a 500-pound tiger (all true). The workshop—what Krieg calls the “Secret Mountain Laboratory”—also manufactures extraordinary vehicles, such as a 1951 Ford two-door chop-top coupe that can hit 150 miles per hour.
Watch video about Jan Krieg and his automotive creations:
Krieg’s Masterpiece
The car, dubbed “Thunder Road,” combines the Ford body with a 1985 C4 Corvette chassis. “I found the ’51 Ford listed on eBay Motors, and I liked the shape,” said Krieg. “It was a project car but the owner ran out of steam, so I picked it up for a song.” When Krieg found the Corvette at a local body shop, another abandoned project car, he immediately saw the potential to meld the two cars into one.
Thunder Road is powered by a 302 Chevy race engine built by Gotelli’s Speed Shop.
Thunder Road is powered by a 302 cubic inch small-block Chevy. “The engine was built by Bruno Gianoli, the machinist at Gotelli’s Speed Shop in South San Francisco,” Krieg said. (Gianoli reportedly built the fastest small-block Chevy of all time.)
Krieg’s purpose-built racer with a Spartan interior and easy-driving three-speed automatic transmission is street-legal. “I’ve had Thunder Road up to 120 miles per hour without any problem,” Krieg admitted.
Thunder Road’s aluminum cockpit features a custom roll cage.
He’s no stranger to speed. The Silicon Valley native started building soapbox racers when he was seven years old. He graduated to dragsters in high school and never stopped creating fantastical wheeled machines, from a Segway-like solar-powered scooter to a battery-powered bicycle with a side car for his bulldog. His super-kart, one of the first built, hit 160 miles per hour at Laguna Seca Raceway.
Krieg’s favorite car of all time is Thunder Road, which runs either on gasoline or e85 ethanol. “Ethanol has the same octane as 105 race gas," said Krieg. “What could be better than a high-revving race engine than runs on organic low emissions fuel?”
Thunder Road is a mash-up of a 1951 Ford Coupe and a 1985 C4 Corvette.
It’s Never Done
To create Thunder Road, Krieg stripped off the Corvette’s body and interior, leaving just the raw chassis. The Ford’s wheelbase was longer than the Corvette’s, so he extended the ‘Vette frame by 15 inches. The dental-tech master made the custom interior and floor pan from aerospace aluminum. The hand-built rear aerodynamic diffuser is based on a McLaren F1 design. All the electrical systems are also custom.
Thunder Road’s Corvette chassis was stretched 15 inches to fit under the ’51 Ford body.
The ‘51 Ford’s body is otherwise all original, complete with the original paint and rust. “I replaced some of the worst rust, but I like the patina just the way it is," Krieg said.
The F1-inspired underbody diffuser keeps the car planted on the road.
The chassis, suspension, and brakes are stock Corvette, but coil-overs replaced the front leaf spring setup, and C5 ZR-1 binders are swapped in for the stock brakes. The revised suspension is fully adjustable. Many of the parts came from eBay Motors. “eBay is the easiest place to find stuff. You can just scroll through,” he said. “Eventually somebody is going to put something up that you’re going to need.”
“Thunder Road is still a work in progress," said Krieg. “I still find things on eBay Motors that make sense to add to the car, so I'm not sure when it will ever be completed.” Meanwhile, he’s planning his next automotive creation—a pure electric land rocket that he hopes will be the fastest oil-free salt-flats racer ever built.
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