Top Force Evolution
Model Number: 58107

ideal2k

This was a tricked out version of the Top Force (well, obviously), a car which was a Manta Ray with an FRP chassis basicly, as a result of this spares are easy to get even now, with the Manta Ray XB still being for sale. The body kit for these cars was very sweet indeed. The Top Force Evo came with different shock towers than the regular Top Force, first of all the shock towers were designed so that they didn't flex as much as the Top Force's shock towers would have a tendency to do, and then secondly they had more mounting points/holes in them, so this allowed for more options in this respect than the standard Top Force. The Evolution came with turnbuckles, which I think was a first for a Tamiya car(?) Even the ball-diffs were upgraded. They had these special jagged round bits which you rubber-cemented the outdrives onto and then stuck into the balldiff, which then led to the fact that the ball bearings were now sort of stuck between the outdrives (joint cups) and the jagged round bit. It had a carbon chassis, and a front torque-splitter / one-way. When I built mine, I at first managed to install the one-way the wrong way, so when I went out for the first test run I was shocked to find it was now a 2wd! Hehehe I still have mine, will post showroom soon.. I raced this for a while, and I did win lots - but only the indoor series, I never did well outdoors (in Norway people race indoors during the winter, because of snow). I put this down to the fact that this car basicly doesn't handle rough terrain very well. What I mean by this is that it's much more fond of sort of flat tracks with long turning straights than it is of bumpy curvy choppy tracks with lots of jumps. This has something to do with it's suspension geometry, there's not much you can do with setup to change that. I used saddle packs in mine, drilled two extra holes in the chassis and mounted the Kyosho Optima mid battery straps. I liked this car a lot, but in the end racing it wasn't "all that", due to its natural limitations. Still, it makes you wonder, when are they going to make the next one? I mean, there's been no off road follow up from Tamiya for ages...