Tony Rudd

8/3/1923 - 22/8/2003

Record updated 08-Mar-23

In more than 50 years as an engineer in the field of high performance engine development and Grand Prix racing, Tony Rudd became a world-renowned authority, highly respected for his innovative methods.

Tony Rudd
Copyright: Motorsport Images

He was intimately involved with the extensive changes brought about in high-performance engine and car design, from his years with the BRM team where he became Chief Engineer and Team Manager, and thereafter as Group Engineering Director at Lotus.

From his pre-war school holiday involvement with Prince Chula and B. Bira and their ERAs, Tony Rudd went on to become an engineering apprentice at Rolls-Royce in Derby and thereafter Hucknall. After a wartime spent mostly working round the clock on aero-engine service and durability problems, he was seconded to Raymond Mays troubled BRM workshops in Bourne, Lincolnshire. There he caught the motor racing bug for good-and never returned to Rolls-Royce.

At BRM Tony Rudd had a do-or-die ultimatum from Sir Alfred Owen. The crunch year was 1962. Under Rudd's leadership BRM redeemed itself by winning the Constructors' Championship, and giving Graham Hill his first Fl World Championship. Seven years later Tony Rudd joined Cohn Chapman at Lotus where he worked for more than 20 years until his retirement in March 1991.

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