Ken Rudd (racing driver)

AC Ace with 2.6 liter rudder speed engine

The former control tower of the Brookland Aero Club; now owned by Ruddspeed

Kenneth "Ken" Rudd (born March 24, 1921 ; † August 29, 2009 ) was a British entrepreneur and racing car driver .

Entrepreneur

Ken Rudd opened a repair shop for motor vehicles in Worthing in November 1945, a few months after the end of World War II . The company's beginnings were very humble; the first workshop was in an abandoned stable . For years he worked for local farmers and repaired their agricultural machinery before turning to sports cars in the early 1950s . In 1948 he had worked with K. N. Rudd Ltd. founded a corporation and a few years later built a new facility in Worthing.

Rudd became known through conversions and modifications to road vehicles for racing. In addition to models from Austin-Healey , Volvo and Alfa Romeo , this mainly affected sports cars from AC Cars . The basis for equipping AC-Ace models with Bristol engines was a supply contract between AC and Bristol Cars in 1956 . At a suggestion by Rudd, Girling disc brakes were also introduced in the Ace in 1957.

Rudd offered engines for the Ace through his own company Ruddspeed in the early 1960s. The 2.6-liter six-cylinder in- line engine came from Ford , where it was used in the sedan models Zephyr Mk.II and Zodiac Mk.II from 1956 to 1961 . Rudd supplied the engine in five different power levels. AC built an upgraded ruddspeed motor into an original Ace in 1961. The performance figures were so convincing that AC presented this version in 1961 at the British International Motor Show in London and included it in the regular delivery program.

Until his death in 2009, Rudd worked on the restoration of historic vehicles, primarily from AC and Volvo. The company includes also the former Brooklands Aero Club House & Control Tower at Brooklands Aerodrome on which he formerly oval track of Brooklands was.

Racing career

In the 1950s, Rudd was also active as a racing driver. In 1953 he finished eleventh overall with Johnny Lockett in the Goodwood 9-hour race . In addition to several victories in national sports car races, he won the 3-hour race in Snetterton in 1957 .

In the same year he drove a works Ac Ace at Le Mans with Peter Bolton and finished tenth overall.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1957	AC Cars Ltd.	AC Ace	Peter Bolton	Rank 10

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1955	Frazer Nash	DKW 3 = 6	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
							DNF
1957	AC Cars	AC Ace	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
							10

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

• Ruddspeed website
• Ken Rudd at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Founding of KN Rudd Ltd.
2. ↑ 1953 Goodwood 9 Hours
3. ↑ 1957 Snetterton 3 Hours