History of Ruddspeed
From its humble origins to it's current home at Brooklands
In November 1945 Ken Rudd started a business from a disused stable in Worthing, from these humble beginnings of working on general engineering for local farmers he graduated to more specialised work on sports cars, he called the company K.N. Rudd (Engineering) Ltd. With a steady flow of work he soon ran out of space, so had to move to new premises in Worthing's Victoria Road.
In 1953 he had become sufficiently well know as a competition driver to be invited by Donald Healey to understudy for him at Le Mans. At the motor show that year he bought himself an Ace which he raced until 1958, the AC marque was to be the backbone his business.
He formed Ruddspeed Ltd, to undertake tuning conversions for Austin Healeys, Volvos, Alfas and later converting Ford Mustangs to RHD cars. He also occasionally worked on one-off projects for customers.
Ken was also the first to start putting larger engines into the AC sportscars, and achieved many successes on the track with them in the 1950's. Even today, a Ruddspeed AC Bristol or Ford is a finely balanced and immensely capable road or track vehicle. He was a man of his era, an inventor, accomplished engineer and racing driver, who nevertheless moved with the times. The 1970's saw him researching the subject of environmental conservation and recycling. Ken was a charming, energetic and accomplished polymath. He was a great man, and certainly a great Briton.
Beside his links to ACs and being an accomplished racing driver in his own right, Ken was also a Volvo agent and tuner of extremely high repute back in the 1960's. Ruddspeed Volvos were supplied to Hampshire Police, and Ruddspeed ACs and Austin Healeys were driven by celebrities as diverse as Ian Fleming and Bruce Reynolds.
Sadly Ken passed away on the 29th of August 2009, throughout his life his aim was always to take a good car and make it even better. At Ruddspeed we wish to continue with that tradition, so with Ken’s blessing we are rebuilding the brand.
Based at the Brooklands Motor Circuit, the birthplace of British motorsport. We have a dedicated team to help you with your Ruddspeed needs, whether a simple service or a full restoration.
We have created a 'Ruddspeed Registry' of all known Ruddspeed cars, whether they be an AC, Healey, Volvo, Alfa, Mustang or other marques. We are always looking for help with any history, photos or stories. If you currently have a car that was given the Rudd treatment or maybe you owned one, we would love to hear from you with any information, memories, stories and photographs as it will all help preserve the Ruddspeed history.
If you have any questions or enquires please contact us for further information.
We would like to thank James Waugh and Tony Bancroft in connection with allowing us to use some of these wonderful images.
As the photographs are collected from various sources, you may want to add or change a caption or if you feel your copyright has been violated then please contact us and we will be happy to amend the image(s) in question.