The 3.8-liter engine was rebuilt in 2015 and has twin carburetors. The original fuel tank is still in the car and holds 56 liters. A secondary fuel tank has been added which holds 68 liters, for a total fuel capacity of 124 liters.
We drove the car in the 2015 Sahara Challenge from Toledo, Spain to Marrakesh, Morocco. We foolishly pushed our limits on the first day and ran out of gas. However that did give us an opportunity to accurately record the fuel capacities of the tanks and our fuel consumption. Thus we are confident that our overall range is about 500 km or 310 miles.
The car performed superbly in the Sahara Challenge. We passed cars stuck in sand without getting stuck ourselves. The car did well in the hairpin turns of the mountains of Spain and Morocco. We had no breakdowns during the 10 days of the rally. The 1938 Chevrolet is a bit shorter than the 1939 Chevrolet coupes. Thus, we are very tight on storage space in the trunk and in the cockpit. We tried stacking both spare wheels on the roof during the Sahara Challenge to free up storage space in the trunk for spare parts, knowing we would need even more storage capacity for the 2016 Peking to Paris Rally. The car handled okay with both spare wheels on the roof but it was not ideal. In early 2016, we built a rack on the rear of the car to hold one of the spare wheels while the other one remains on the roof.
