TOPIC:

I've digged out my own over 20y old Manta Ray from the very early 90's of the attic of my parents house and decided to restorate this for my nephew but then, i started it to hop up this for my own interests first!





At first i tried to remember about how those cars are working and what i can do today to tune it a little bit. brushless, lippo and 2,4ghz was new to me. So i started asking in some forums, reading some pages about hop up and which kind of car my manta ray is/was - a ta01/df01 buggy-whatever. Maybe Tamiy self doesn't now exactly.
Second part was cleaning. The car was very very dusty.... have a look:









Now cleaned:






After cleaning i made some lists and decisions what i wanna do with this car. Losing weight, making it faster without losing newtons and ... removing the ugly, overworked manta ray, want-to-be-a-spaceship body.

The car was, without the akku, fully working but the front bridge was broken... I've decided to change it to alu or carbon.
For this i've bought many parts of top force (instead of buying one topforce... yeah, hobbies... mindless but full of fun!). Changed the yellow damper to black ones, bought new oil and grease (top force parts..):





Most important point is, that i've switched to ball bearings instead of plastic washers. Every gear is new greased, new oil in dampers already.
But there is one problem to finish the wannabe-top-force chassis.

The mount bag 9405710 .....


I'm currently searching at the whole world for it and also think about to let it build from a metal worker... But the car currently has the original plastic chassis and could drive.

So I've bought new lightweigth spike wheels in white, a new akku, checked the r/c. Everything nice. First meters in the flat, the car make some strange noise... plastic motor mount was broken. Currently i am waiting to get a new one, included speed gear to get better gear ratio. Also i've bought a new akku, a 3200mah with loader included. Old one from "tronico" was to strong and had a load of 4amp... Took about 15 minutes to load up a 1400mah but not smart for the akku.

Also i don't have a new body yet. I've bought one of the desert gator. Wing is fitting nice but the body itself is to short for the ta01 chassis. Sad. The seller said that this would be no problem. I've found something about df02 would fit on ta01. I'm seaching for those alternatives cause i think that ta01 bodys are to expensive and i don't want to have a top-force or a terra conquerer. First have a lot of guys and second one is not what i wanted.

Later plans are a bigger motor and other things to give much power to this old but nice-one chassis. I'll let you know!

What a familiar sight and story.
I was thinking an Egress or Madcap would also have a good chance of fitting. Planning on trying it out sometime...
I've already been in contact with our master fabricator here about the mount bag.
Just needed a poke to do the measurements.

Looking forward to the rest!

waterbok sent me measurement of some parts of it






Here are some current pics of the car. Wing from Desert gator without color yet and motor without mount

Looks tight!

I think you would only need the chassis stays if you also put on a GPM steering assembly (it has the steering mounts)...

Mine is in the plane to arrive at home
I have the same front lightweight wheeles.
Next stage is restoration to. but strictly stock and one hop uped after this one

I've made myself a note, I'll try to look at it at the weekend. Hopefully the forecast polar bears might have subsided a bit by then!
I take it the bits we're interested in are SD5/6 & SD1 only?
How critical is the chamfer/radius at the bases - does it have to be identical or just whatever's easiest?

SD7 looks like the item they use on a lot of other cars (inc Hilux + Highlift) so it could be sourced elsewhere if needed.

Completely unrelated, but Edou, do you have an F101,2,3 in bits kicking about? - if so, some scans of the various chassis plates complete with an overall dimension (For scaling purposes) would be much appreciated - being bugged by a carpark basher idea that won't go away...

Cheers, eddrick. Indeed SD1, 5 and 6 are most essential to put an FRP chassis together.
I do think the bases'll have to be close to what's mentioned - it fits inside the plastic bits...
But I'll double check how it fits together exactly.



A scan/dimensions of the F102 is a bit difficult but the F101 and especially the F103 shouldn't be a problem.
I'll dig up the boxes and cars shortly...

Is it possible to get those parts too? I could pay per paypal for them. Also most important is SD1, 5 & 6 to mount the decks together. Maybe there are much more "customers", which want to have it
After my search-post, i've received plenty messages if i already got them.

Btw. Alu Motor-Mount arrived! Today i'll do some speed-tests, using a tracker on my iPhone

Now thats a fine piece of art.



if you leave out the wheels that makes for a nice terra conqueror setup.
now get some TC decals and a blazing star body.