Imagine our surprise when our Mopar-loving father in law was looking through an old copy of Hot Rod magazine from 1969 and found the GM ad below. The ad is for an “experimental” model called the Stir-Lec 1 and it is a freaking hybrid, using a Stirling engine to generate electricity for the batteries that actually provide the power for the car.
We’ve never heard of this thing before, haven’t seen any photos, and didn’t know that it existed at all, and we’re kind of blown away that the company has not at least made mention of it with the promotion it has been doing with the upcoming and much anticipated Volt.
Sure, in terms of the technology of today this thing is about as crude as a concrete block, but it must have been space-aged stuff back in the late 1960s.
The whole thing was packaged up in an Opel Kadett body per the wording in the old advertisement.
Is there a chance that this car is buried in the basement of a GM engineering building? Did it ever actually exist as a real car? Does anyone know anything more about this project?
Once again, there’s nothing new under the sun. This is wild!
