47367: Manta Ray (2018) from SlideWRX showroom, Fun Runner Ray

Model: (Click to see more) 47367: Manta Ray (2018)
Status: Runner
Date: 6-Jan-2025
Comments: 1

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I got this for Christmas! I had been looking to buy/build a 4wd buggy and this came up as a top contender. The build was easy as usual for Tamiya. The only mod to start was bearings. The bearings were a few days late, so I actually started building it with the bushings. It wasn't a big concern though - it is easy to access the gear sets and swap out the bushings in this thing. The first run was quite enjoyable - I was worried it would be noticeably slower than my other various 2wd buggies, but not really - swapping the bushings out and the stock 540 is quick enough. It will eventually get a faster motor I think, but I was quite happy with how fast it was out of the box. I felt the shocks are overdamped with the stock shock oil which is around 400Cst, so I used Tamiya orange 300Cst to soften them. I need to adjust the spring height to level out the car - stock the rear end sits low compared to the front.
My servo and the stock ESC are waterproof, but my receiver was not, so I went old school and put it in a balloon to keep the water out. The bottom of the balloon is cut out a bit, so the double sided tape is stuck to the bottom of the receiver, and also to the balloon to hold everything in place.
I added some 'guards' near where the battery sticks out; left over lexan from one of the recent bodies. My first run had a bunch of dirt build up on the leading edge of the battery.
You can see in the side shots especially that I didn't cut out along the lines - I'm not entirely sold on the 'ray' shape, so I kept some extra in to make it more of a full body.
The last thing I did was drill a hole 90 degrees to the one provided for the battery stop - the clip was right up against the body. I didn't get a good pic of it but there is an arrow in one of the pics below.