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Blakbird's 47367 Manta Ray Build 4 years 10 months ago #55370

The original 58087 Manta Ray was released in 1990 and was the first to use the new DF-01 (Dirt - Four Wheel Drive) chassis. If you've ever built a TA-01 or TA-02 touring car chassis, the DF-01 may look familiar because it is basically the same thing and gave rise to those iconic versions. 15 years later the Manta Ray was re-released as 58360 with hardly any changes, but sadly I missed that one. Luckily for me, Tamiya came out with another limited production run in 2018, this time numbered 47367. As far as I can tell, it is exactly the same thing. Of course it uses an electronic speed controller rather than the vintage mechanical speed controller, but the chassis and body appear to be what was used 28 years earlier.

This is a four wheel drive chassis with CVA oil shocks and double wishbone suspension all around. The tires are pin spike and the wheels are dish variety. I find it to be quite durable and well mannered. It is stable and flat at any reasonable speed and even jumps well. It is also a lot faster than I've come to expect of classic 540 powered buggies. I really like it. I didn't know much about this one prior to building it so didn't have much in the way of expectations apart from an assumption that old buggies tend to handle pretty poorly. In this case, I was pleasantly surprised at its capability. It even does a passable job of looking like a manta ray. Unlike many other classic buggies though, it does not come with a driver or a clear windshield to install one. A cursory look through the back catalog suggests that this might actually be the first Tamiya buggy to not come with a driver (or maybe it was the Egress). There is a sticker that says "Slippery Sam" though, so I guess he must be back there behind the tinted glass.

The Manta Ray comes in a lovely medium sized box with traditional artwork on the cover including the silhouette of a real manta. There is a divider inside the box and a smaller box for hardware, but no blister packs.
You can tell by the smallish number of parts that this is not a very complicated model. The main chassis is a single piece bathtub and most of the remaining plastic parts belong to the gearbox housing and the suspension arms.
The rear gearbox uses a standard open differential with 3 metal spider gears. The ring gear is a spur type with a very large face width. The right hand image shows it installed in the gearbox housing.
These are the other gears which are part of the rear transmission. The large plastic spur gear is on a common shaft with a smaller aluminum gear. There's another aluminum idler to drive the differential, and the bevel gear is driven directly by the spur and leads to the prop shaft running to the front transmission.
The motor installs into an indexing mount with holes for pinion gears ranging from 16 to 21 teeth. The kit comes with an aluminum pinion of the maximum size resulting in the highest top speed.
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Blakbird's 47367 Manta Ray Build 4 years 10 months ago #55371

The suspension arms attach directly to the gearbox housing. The upper arms are just beams with a fixed length. The lower arms are wishbones. The drive cups, hubs, and dog bones are installed at this point, completing the rear driveline. The rear shock tower is also attached here. With everything being black, the detail can be hard to see in photos.
Now we'll get started on the front gearbox. It uses the same type of differential as the rear, and the same type of bevel gear to connect to the prop shaft. Note the tiny bearings supporting the bevel gears. This will not be ideal for high torque applications.
The completed front gearbox with the drive cups installed. It is very compact.
Now we'll install the front suspension and steering. It is very similar to the rear except it uses C-hubs to support the red steering knuckles. The lower arms pivot on a large u-bolt which will later be retained by the front bumper.
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Blakbird's 47367 Manta Ray Build 4 years 10 months ago #55372

This model uses the older type of CVA shocks with a longer rod end cap. The piston head is built into the rod and does not have holes so is not adjustable, although of course the fluid viscosity can be changed. The front and rear dampers have the same housing but the front have an internal spacer to limit extended length and they have different springs. These are all long travel shocks.
All of the electronics are installed in a compact way within the chassis bathtub. The steering servo is mounted to the deck with the ESC right behind. The battery sits laterally behind that with the receiver above it. The dual bellcrank steering goes right ahead of the servo. Everything here is almost identical to the TA-02 I just recently built.
The gearboxes and suspension assemblies are modular and can now simply be bolted to the center section which nearly completes the model. All that remains are the wheels and tires.
The Manta Ray was pretty easy to paint, although it is the only polycarbonate Tamiya model I've built which does NOT include window masks. The window needed to be masked manually and painted black.It's too bad that it is not clear with a driver like many other classic buggies. Everything else is standard silver.
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Blakbird's 47367 Manta Ray Build 4 years 10 months ago #55373

The Manta Ray manages to do a pretty good job of looking like its namesake. It must be the wings on the sides. The body and coloration are simple, but it is still a rather wonderful looking model. I am not normally a fan of dish wheels, but with the stickers and color coordination with the body they actually look pretty good.
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Blakbird's 47367 Manta Ray Build 4 years 10 months ago #55379

If I can advice something to you, it is to replace the ally gears by the ta02 nylon version if you want to run it hardly.

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Blakbird's 47367 Manta Ray Build 4 years 10 months ago #55383

Good job, it looks great.
I love the strange looking cars by tamiya.
I wanted either a manta Ray or thunder dragon back in the early 90s. I ended up with a thunder dragon.
One day I'll own a manta Ray! :)

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Blakbird's 47367 Manta Ray Build 4 years 10 months ago #55387

Good job, it looks great.
I love the strange looking cars by tamiya.
I wanted either a manta Ray or thunder dragon back in the early 90s. I ended up with a thunder dragon.
One day I'll own a manta Ray! :)

You can find easily a df01.

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Blakbird's 47367 Manta Ray Build 4 years 10 months ago #55393

If I can advice something to you, it is to replace the ally gears by the ta02 nylon version if you want to run it hardly.

I've heard about that. Strange that Nylon would be stronger than aluminum. Maybe it is more about heat than strength. Also strange that they would not fix the problem in the rere. In any case, I'm planning to leave the stock motor in it so I should be ok.

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Blakbird's 47367 Manta Ray Build 4 years 10 months ago #55395

All my df01 restos had the used aloy gears worn. And all my ta02 (I abused) have their nylon gearq ok. Especially my ta02rs wich had stock and modified motors.
It was an option for the ta01.

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Blakbird's 47367 Manta Ray Build 4 years 10 months ago #55405

Even if driving with the stock motor following upgrades will keep the car alive and in better condition.
All plastic gearset, alloy motor mount and hardened driveshaft, ball bearings and a steel .6 mod metric pinion.

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Last edit: by waterbok.
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