TOPIC:

Well... here I am. picked up a manta ray from a Viking
back in the hobby after 20 years.
I remember I started with quick drives, went to a grasshopper, moved to a Bear Hawk which I converted to a stadium blitzer then took the 4wd step to a manta ray that ended up being a topforce. it changed quite a lot of forms from a touring car to a bigfoot. but ended up being a buggy because my neighbour as a kid had the same bug we were exchanging parts motors setups occasionally. especially when he bought an F1 car he still has. that's how my Dynatech 02Hmotor was saved from the bin. it was on his car when someone decided the Topforce was an old toy in the garage.
So here I am again bought a manta ray though 5 years ago I started flyign planes and quickly moved to Turbine Jets. I even own a webshop now.
upgrading the manta should be a really easy task with aftermarket parts. though I really wanted it to be fully genuine parts it's relatively impossible. I could buy me another jet for that price.
I will take the middle route.
I attach some photos. With help from some guys in here I already acquired an ESC the hobbywing 1060 and the 7100w rotor for the dynatech. The car hasn't arrived yet and I haven't been able to go get my motor back to check the brushes.
I know I could have gone brushless but that motor is a legend to me.
I also got a full set of ball bearings from ebay.
The car is missing the rear wing.
Even if all works ok I will still need a transfer axle. I still remember how the stock (wire) one was acting at full throttle with the dynatech and the old ni-cd batteries. I intend to run a 2s lipo on this one. most probably a turnigy 4200mah 40-80c.
any suggestions or advice are welcome. hope the pinion of the silver 540 motor is ok with that setup.

EDIT: Next buy will be on next payday which will be by the end of the month. I suppose. As I said maybe a oh yeah center shaft and the shock mounts that tend to brake on big jumps and also the motor mount.
and btw a new track was created just 7 minutes from my place

WoW, nice track!

Perfect for the Ray

EHEHEH!!! Another manta ray fan. That's the most upgradable car. You can have a basic chassis to a competition beast( tf evo). The rear aloy pinions aren't very nice for a big motor (same with the silvercan too ) You have to find the TA02 rear pinion gear set all i celoron. And you have 3 gears available.

Nice track indeed.

Like sting mentioned, best to get a steel pinion in any case and maybe a full plastic gear setup...

yep not the motor pinion in plastic. The other gears. Like the ta02...

Just a handy list here. On page 26 of 74.

tamiyabase.com/...t=250#6013

Cool track, would have a ball with the brushless Team Losi 8ight 2.0 E & 22T. Wouldn't run Tamiya there unless it's specificly built & designed for racing. Have seen too many bring the wrong caliber off-roader to a track & have it end badly.

stingray-63 wrote:

EHEHEH!!! Another manta ray fan. That's the most upgradable car. You can have a basic chassis to a competition beast( tf evo). The rear aloy pinions aren't very nice for a big motor (same with the silvercan too ) You have to find the TA02 rear pinion gear set all i celoron. And you have 3 gears available.

thank you guys for the replies. Is that what you are talking about?
www.rcmart.com/...95_744_754
Aren't all the motor pinions made of steel ?

I also remember one of the most expensive upgrades back then were the titanium look cva shocks. are they still available somewhere and are they affordable? and were they worth the upgrade? I think both the black and yellow oil filled ones were working fine

Yes, those are the gears. Standard Tamiya pinions are made of aluminium and can't handle a whole lot.
The shocks you are referring to are Hi caps. They were rereleased a while back but are out of stock again as far as I know.
Very nice, especially the look but CVAs are definitely good dampers too.
I'd probably be looking at upgrading a few other things myself first, like an alloy motor mount for example.

tamiyabase.com/...-caps.html

There is an option too. 3 different size of main gears for the TA01. stock on the TA02 RS The standard size is the 74 teeth. The CVAs are the same as the top force evo . But yellow (or black on the top force and terra conqueror) ones are very efficient too if they are precisely built.