Anyone know much about the history of this?

[Colinevan]

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.

[ben]

ignore my post

[bondy]

Originally Posted by ben

I dont know much about vintage cars but my guess is a kyosho of some sort?

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

[DCM]

Originally Posted by bondy

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

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

[DCM]

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.

[jim76]

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!

[Chris Green]

Originally Posted by jim76

Looks like it was used for on road judging by the wheels?

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

[Colinevan]

Originally Posted by Chris Green

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.

[terry.sc]

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?



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

[Welshy40]

Originally Posted by jim76

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!

What did he win the euros with then, I thought it was the same car as what he used at the nats?

[pUs]

Originally Posted by Welshy40

What did he win the euros with then, I thought it was the same car as what he used at the nats?

He never won the euros for Tamiya, Craig Drescher won it in 1991. I think Jamie was 4th or something with the Manta Ray.