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Kencocat

Manta Ray or Thunder Shot?

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Really stuck on which of these two buggies to get for bashing about off road. Not sure which is the toughest and easiest to water proof and what parts break most often.

Any ideas?

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personally, I would go for the Manta Ray.

Thundershot is just a much older car.

or maybe an even better bet might be to give a Gravel Hound or Rising Storm a try, they are both still current so spare parts are easier.

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The Manta Ray is by far the toughest of the two cars. The Thundershot

has an inherent design flaw that hasn't been improved in the re-release

that means in an accident it is easy to break the front wishbone mount.

The Manta Ray uses the same transmission system as the touring cars so

spares are still easy to get hold of. The only 'fault' with the Manta

Ray is the plastic motor mount, but if you are just bashing and not

using a hot race motor you should never have a problem.

For bashing take a  look at the Gravel Hound, these are really

tough cars and if you break anything spares are readily available.

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What water and dirt proof concearns TS is the better choice with its deep tub and tub cover, I drove my re-release 2 batteries in snow (check my movies) and the tub was almost completely dry inside [H]. Personally I find MR one of the less attractive designwise buggies ever made, so my choice would be TS for vintage and Rising Storm for modern.

Cheers

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Personally I find MR one of the less attractive designwise buggies ever made, so my choice would be TS for vintage and Rising Storm for modern.

Cheers

My thoughts exactly. I also remember that although a friend's Manta Ray was a much better handler (much less understeer) than my Boomerang, it also seemed to be far more fragile...

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I'd probably go for the Manta Ray as it will handle better, has more hop ups and also looks nicer.

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If you want to go faster, go for the Mantaray.

If you want a car that goes (and sounds) like a tank, except for the above mentioned problem on the front wishbones, go for the Thundershot.

Remeber that the TS uses the older Tamiya 32  pitch style gears, so your options in case you want to upgrade to a hotter motor are limited from the outset. The tyres can also be a problem since the size and hubs are all unique to the TS series of cars. With the Mantaray there are literarilly hundreds of tyres and gears you can use.

Hope this helps-

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Remeber that the TS uses the older Tamiya 32  pitch style gears, so your options in case you want to upgrade to a hotter motor are limited from the outset.

Don't agree, as it takes many pinion sizes with the kit motor mount and 32 pitch aren't hard to find, also it has a metal motor mount, while for MR you need to search and pay alot for one.

Cheers

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If you want a car that goes (and sounds) like a tank, except for the above mentioned problem on the front wishbones, go for the Thundershot.

I don't know what you mean with go like a tank, if you check the video of my first drive with the re-re http://www.tamiyaclub.com/moviecomment.asp...1304&uid=16 its pretty fast and ok handling, also its transmission wasn't as loud as the old Hot Shot series, especially if you now build it with modern greases and full BBs (a must, especially in 4WDs)

Cheers

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I had the 90's TS and found that i broke the front arms a few times although the shell etc were strong i rolled mine countless times on concrete and it lasted for years !!

I used to pop the drive shafts out alot too !!

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Lol, the CVA dampers used to pop apart if you landed too hard off a jump too. I'd still go for the TS as it's much nicer looking than the Manta Ray [:)]

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DJTheo:

Nice video, that one.

I´m comparing the trannys of the TS and Manta. There is no way, even with full bbs and adequeate greasing, that the TS is less noisy than the Manta. Al least that´s my experience with both cars (both had full bbs, btw).

By today´s standardsI consider the TS a noisy car.

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Agreed that the TS has a nice metal motor mount with fixed gearing options.

I find quite difficult to find Tamiya´s old 0.8 pinions in their hobbyshops. It´s much easier to get a hold of the new 0.6 (AV type) pinions.

Still, the Manta´s gearbox should be much more efficiente with the finer gears.

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It would have to be thundershot for me (no surprises there though).

The Manta Ray is the better design, has a longer wheelbase which gives both better handling and more stable running at higher speeds. The Manta Ray also has a wider range of pinion options so can run a hotter motor with a better suited pinion. The Manta Ray is not quieter than the thundershot, in fact I find it more noisy because the silly wire propshaft is EVEN LONGER than the thundershot one and rattles around even more, especially with a hot motor. The Manta Ray also suffers from weak design points, the suspension towers break very easily which is why most are replaced with FRP/Carbon ones although the suspension on the MR is much stronger than the thundershot. The MR is also held together with shoulder screws which Tamiya seems to love but they work loose very quickly and tend to crack the plastic easily. Mandatory upgrade for the MR is the alloy motor mount as the plastic mount breaks it lugs off pretty quickly.

Despite being an older and in theory less rugged design the thundershot takes a serious amount of abuse. I suspect that this is primarily because of its softer more supple suspension. I have run them alongside Manta Rays on really rough tracks and the TS is the better car on the really rough surfaces. The only real weak point to be concerned about is the lower front wishbone mount, part A5 which does break easily if you have an offset front collision. This is however very easily solved by using a piece of aluminium plate for added strength or fitting a wider front bumper. The TS also allows the fitment of 8.4v battery packs which is impossible in the moulded tub of the MR. There are also loads of optional parts for these cars and with the optional upper suspension mounts from other cars in the range such as terra scorcher etc you can have 16 shock mounting configurations including twin shocks up front. Mandatory upgrade for the TS is the UJ driveshafts for the front as the dogbones easily disengage under hard cornering.

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