Last time, we went into some detail on the best known
"Manta Ray" slot car - the one made by Classic.
There's another one which came out in 1967, that isn't
seen too often - the MPC version of the Dean Jeffries’
full size show car.

This is mine, purchased 10 about years ago, in rather
ordinary condition - not mint by any stretch of the imagination!

The star of this slot car is the body. It's a thick, vac-formed
body with swoopy curves and undercuts like no other -
a moldmaker's challenge (if not a nightmare!) for sure.

The bubble top is a separate piece - and the glue "fog"
around the edges is fairly obvious on mine.

The most amazing thing is that this body is quite
a faithful reproduction of the original show car,
which hit the traveling circuit in 1964. Unlike
"Big Daddy" Roth's fiberglass cars that it was
competing against, the Manta Ray body was
handformed aluminum - a real work of art!

The one bonehead move they made with the
slot car was that the gas filler cap is on the
wrong side of the body. Looking down from the
top, the driver position is offset to the right side
of the car. On the real car, this allows the gas
tank and filler cap to be on the left side. The ad
drawing for the slot car shows the cap on the
correct side, but it sure isn't on mine!

As neat as Dean Jefferies' car is, even he says
it was a stupid move on his part. Not because it
didn't turn out great, and was VERY good for his
business. It's just that it was built on a pre-war
Maserati Grand Prix chassis, of which there were
only 2 made. The other one has been restored,
and is worth $2 million dollars!!!!!

Back to the slot car….

 

	The chassis & running gear are standard MPC. The chassis is the later "drop snout" version (also used on the Lola T-70), rather than the one with the plastic drop arm.
The motor was the new "Hi-Rise" - basically a rewound Dyno-Can, with the destinctive leaf spring type brushes.

Note the "dished" 46T spur gear. Made of steel, it had an offset hub, so
that when run up against a 5-40 nut, the teeth would be close to the chassis.
I suspect they went to this trouble to keep the motor shaft short by having
the brass, 15T pinion in as close as possible.

The MPC Manta Ray was only available as an RTR, and came equipped
with white silicone coated sponge rear tires. Included were a pair of medium
gray solid silicones, which my car is wearing. The Front wheels & tires are
pure standard MPC. Wheel inserts and knock offs are identical to those
found on their J-Car and Mako Shark cars.
Here's a close up of what they should look like:
 

 These are on my J-Car. I'm trying to show the knock-offs - they are plastic
and the prongs are quite thin. I imagine that's why my Manta Ray is missing
these - looks like they could be easily broken while trying to remove them….
However, the photo of this car in "Vintage Slot Cars" by Philippe deLespinay,
shows different wheel inserts - and they are even vaguely like the real car's
Halibrand mags! The car in the book is metallic red and silver, while mine is
gold/silver. I don't believe it came in any other colors.

Philippe tells me that, unlike most of the earlier MPC slots, the only paperwork
that came with this car was a sheet on the Hi-Rise motor.

Here's the ad which appeared in the major magazines:
(Click to view larger size)

When the MPC car came out in 1967, I wondered how they could get away
with using the same name as Classic’s. I also didn’t remember the real car
being out in 1964. Putting this into perspective, I now wonder how Classic
got away with basically stealing both the body design (OK, they added the
rest of the fenders…) and the name!

Bet they wouldn’t have gotten away with it in 2001!!!!

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