Mould King T.50s Supercar Set 27106

Mould King's T.50s Supercar is an 8-stud-wide model with functional steering, a single-seat cockpit with a central driving position, and a minimalist instrument cluster. A transparent stackable display case with a black base is included.

There is a fan in the back of the real car

The T.50 is Gordon Murray's design, and its defining feature is a 400 mm electric fan mounted in the tail that actively sucks air out from under the car.

Every other performance car generates downforce by pushing air over wings and diffusers, which only works at speed and costs drag. A fan works at any speed, including standing still, and it does not need a wing to do it. The T.50s version generates well over a tonne of downforce on a car weighing less than that.

Murray had done it before. In 1978 he designed the Brabham BT46B, which used a fan the team insisted was for cooling the engine. It won the Swedish Grand Prix by half a minute, the other teams objected immediately, and Brabham withdrew it rather than fight. It remains the only fan car ever to win a Formula One race, with a record of one start and one victory.

Forty-two years later Murray built the idea into a road car, which is an unusually long time to wait to prove a point.

The middle seat

The central driving position on this model is accurate and it is also Murray's. He put the driver in the middle of the McLaren F1 in 1992 for the same reason: perfect symmetry, equal visibility both ways, and the car can be built for left- or right-hand-drive markets without changing anything.

It costs practicality — getting in requires climbing over a sill from either side — and almost nobody else has done it, which is why the layout is instantly recognisable.

Specifications

8 studs wide · Functional steering · Single-seat central cockpit · Transparent stackable display case with black base