Anyone know much about the history of this?
 

I'v come into posession of a few vintage cars and wonder about the history of this Manta ray...

As far as im aware its basic manta ray running gear with a grp chassis and top deck, coupled with a carbon drive shaft, uprated metal tamiya shocks and fully ballraced. Have a look at the pics and if anyone knows anything more about this conversion or indeed any info on this setup , id be very interested.

My memory is very vague but i seem to remember the likes of Jamie Booth running similar manta rays hopped up and they did quite well at national level etc.

Lastly the owner wants to sell, and i will prob be selling on ebay etc on there behalf, it comes with spares ( lots ) but how much is a car like this worth.

Some pics.....

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Col.

ignore my post

Youngsters !
 

Youngsters !! Tut :yawn: Its a tamiya and I think you are nearly right with the manta ray thing

it is a manta ray, it has an RW Racing chassis conversion, I think it was RW, plus the carbon prop shaft, it may have a centre one-way on the propshaft input/output too.

I used to have one of them.

it is the mant ray not the topforce, that had a slimmer topdeck if I remember

no Ben, it's definitely Tamiya.
Manta Ray running gear and Tamiya hi-cap shocks from an Egress or similar.
Jamie Booth won the national championship with a modified mantaray.

Not sure on the chassis, maybe fibrelite, but there were so many companies around back then that did similar.
Looks like it was used for on road judging by the wheels?

edit: typed at same time as DCM! overlap!

Plus, it looks like it has ran a touring car / rallycross shell, judging by the body posts on the front shock tower?

Spot on Chris.....

It did, it comes with 3 rather huge rally x shells, it also came with what i think is an old racecraft copy style off road shell... rather nasty in my opinion but from memory they were were like £4.99 a shell lol.

I need to do some work to it before i sell her and will prob remove all the body extensions and as such convert back to full off road buggy as it has tons of spares and wheels etc.

Col.

Tamiya Manta Ray with RW Racing chassis kit, propshaft and steering arms. Tamiya Top Force Evolution shocks.
Schumacher RT2 tyres.
Can't tell what the wheels are.

Change of body is due to the Manta Ray body not having an undertray, the shape of the undertray suggests a Yokomo body.

What rallycross shells have you got with it and do they need a home?:D



BTW a review of Jamie Booths original version (with Madcap body!) is here.

Terry, Kamte will borrow them and make molds for us ALL to enjoy.... again, I used to love winter, running rally-x on a carpark with the club in the snow. Back then I never had the cells to compete but now.... woooohoooo

yeah rally cross was good fun. still have a BMW M3 shell lying around somewhere though that was more an on road shell

I used to run one identical to that bar the rally cross bodyshell mounts. It went well too. I thought that the bodyshells and undertray were part of the conversion though, not yokomo.

Back in the olden days touring cars were just this, I nearly bought the Metro 6R4 shell for one of my cars. Oh happy days!

I must resist the temptation to bid once that comes on ebay!

the shell and undertray were from racecraft, I remember I bought the whole conversion and shell at the Sandown model exhibition

I used to have the real deal - the Top Force Evo - and that issue with Jamie Booth's car was well thumbed by myself!

I actually really liked the TF Evo. It would be interesting to see how it runs side by side with my Durga now...

Wow, Terry, that really brings back some memories. I bought my first rc car (Obviously a manta ray) on the basis of that review....and then ended up with an exact replica of that car (thanks to Jamie getting some 'wink,wink' parts for me lol).

God I wish I had never sold it.:(

If you ever get them back from him let me know - I prefer the originals. I collect any of the old wide tourers as well.
http://www.tamiyaclub.com/tc_userima...06135658_1.jpg

BTW last year we got Frewer to make a batch of Metro 6R4 shells.
http://www.tamiyaclub.com/tc_userima...5141_1_350.jpg
Kevin Frewer still has all his old patterns and will pull a batch of them if you order enough, they seem to be a better quality material as well. They cost almost as much in postage to get them here than the cost of the bodies.


That's how I got most of my collection, when I upgraded my cars I hung on to the old ones when I saw how little the old cars were worth at the time. I still miss the two I sold on, especially as I know I'd never be able to replicate them with all the hop ups:( How much would a JB replica be worth today?:(

Get the shells to Kamtec and ask Keith nicely if he'll make some!

...I dread to think!

I swapped mine for an 'on form' schumacher cat....unfortunately it wasn't as 'on form' in my hands.:D

I used to have a gorgeous Escort Cosworth wide bodied rally car. looked ace.:) all painted up in the Pilot rally colours.

I would so buy a rallyX shell now, imagine brushless and lipo in a 4wd buggy razing round....

OK, Terry, you parting compant with any of those 6R4 shells?

Wide touring cars rocked! I had a converted Procat with a BMW shell and when things got serious I had a Predator with a Peugoet 405 shell on it. It looked like a brick but boy did it fly!
Schumacher RT1 and RT2 (I think) were the tires to run in green compound and if things got wet there were the crazy cap tires which you kept in a wet plastic bag to keep them from going off.

Does anyone remember the driver who won pretty much everything back then and had his car painted white, red and blue starting from the front? In pictures he was never far away from a can of Stones Bitter... Can't remember his name for the life of me...

Manta Rays were cool back then :)