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Looking for some Ruddspeed help

barwick27

Freshman Member
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I'm looking for some help with any information / history / photos / stories on the late Ken Rudd or Ruddspeed cars and their modifications.

Steve Grey from Brooklands Motor Company who is based at Brooklands will shortly be launching the official Ruddspeed website.
Steve is no stranger to Ruddspeed as he owns and has restored the 1954 AC Ace (RPO 826), which became the Rudd Racing Team development car and demonstrator, this is first Ace personally owned, tuned and raced by Ken Rudd.

Besides the usual AC, Healey and maybe Alf models that Steve knows about I'm helping him gather as much information as possible on the various cars that were modified or tweaked over in Worthing by Ken and his team.
As all the old records were destroyed when the company folded, there is very little information on the cars and their modifications

So I'm wondering if anyone out there currently has a car that was given the Rudd treatment, or maybe you used to own one but sold it, maybe you bought one from new or you knew someone that did...where are the cars that were used in the various articles on Ruddspeed, or maybe you just have a story on Ken....any information not matter how small we'd love to hear about it.

Better still if you have photos of the cars, details of the modifications that were carried out...maybe you worked with Ken in Worthing or you knew someone that worked on the cars when they were being converted?

I know the cars had various type of modification depending on the customers budget, but no matter how small we'd still like to hear about the cars.

Please spread the word as we loved to be able to add any information, photos, spec or stories to the website. The new website will hopefully be launched in the next few months, but we will always be updating it with new stories of the cars that were given the treatment so no worries if it takes a little longer.

The same goes for other marques of cars as well, if you have something on an AC, Healey, Volvo or Alfa etc that would be good too.

We've heard rumours Ken modified a Mustang too but we don't know anything else...so as I mentioned earlier, any information no matter how small would be great, we don't mind doing the leg work if all you have is a name or an old address...we'd just like to build a record of as many of these cars were modified and how many survive today.

You can reply here on the forum or email either myself or Steve directly with information, we are more than happy to cover the cost of scanning old documents or photos if you don't have the equipment to hand to do so. Or I'm more than happy to meet to up for a chat and take photos myself.

Our details are:
barwick@me.com
steve@ruddspeed.com
https://www.ruddspeed.com (current holding page)
Or call Steve on 07860 912217

Many thanks for any information, leads or suggestions in advance

Cheers

Peter
 
I snapped a couple of pictures of this car at Cypress Gardens, in Florida, about twenty-five (>25) years ago.

I do not have any details about the car's history, the owner, or the it's current whereabouts.

ruddspeed_001.sized.jpg


ruddspeed_002.sized.jpg


ruddspeed_003.sized.jpg


ruddspeed_004.sized.jpg
 
Thanks Randy, any information is well received. May I use these photos on the new Ruddspeed site when it goes live? I can give you a credit too if you'd lke.

Cheers

Peter
 
barwick27 said:
Thanks Randy, any information is well received. May I use these photos on the new Ruddspeed site when it goes live? I can give you a credit too if you'd lke.

Cheers

Peter
Yes, you may use them, will credit to me.

Pictures were taken June 8, 1985 at Cypress Gardens, Florida. It was an event put on by the Tampa Bay Chapter Austin Healey Club of America.

Perhaps knowing the when and where, you can discover the why, through further research.
 
Can't help much, but I do have a Ruddspeed decanter, in the form of a Rolls-Royce radiator, that's rather nice.
 
Thanks Roger, I've seen a couple of them and they are very nice...p
 
It's taken a while but we finally have the new Ruddspeed site up and running, so if there are any of Rudd cars out there or you have story on a Ruddspeed car then it would be great to hear about them...please feel free to contact us or add to the Facebook page too.

www.ruddspeed.com

or our facebook page

www.facebook.com/ruddspeed

Thanks

Peter
 
Peter -

Great site, glad to see you got it up and were able to source so much good information. I utilize a original Ruddspeed tri-carb manifold on my 1957 100-6 MM vintage racer which I acquired from the UK. It provides wonderful performance in addition to it's great period appearance.

https:// DSC09702 by dougescriva, on Flickr
 
I have a 1962 (built in 1961, but titled in 1962) Austin Healey 3000 tri carb that the previous owner wanted to make into a works rally car. He replaced the tri carbs (which I still have) with 3 Ruddspeed manifolds and added 3 HD8 carbs. I believe the previous owner told me he aquired the manifolds on Ebay. I will forward a picture to you once I take one. What other pictures would you like?
 
I have a 1962 (built in 1961, but titled in 1962) Austin Healey 3000 tri carb that the previous owner wanted to make into a works rally car. He replaced the tri carbs (which I still have) with 3 Ruddspeed manifolds and added 3 HD8 carbs. I believe the previous owner told me he aquired the manifolds on Ebay. I will forward a picture to you once I take one. What other pictures would you like?
Just a recollection, and my memory may be faulty, but I seem to recall modification to the 6 cylinder Ford engines of the Zephyr and Zodiac involving cylinder head mods carbs and manifolds. This was for the Fords not just the engines used in the AC Ace, which possibly were more heavily modified.
 
AC used the Mk2 Zephyr engine to which Rudd fitted an aluminium Raymond Mays head (A genuine RM head elevates any Zephyr owner to God-like status). This did away with the biggest drawbacks of the Ford engine, namely the exhaust and intake arrangements. I'd guess that Rudd also made a line of performance oriented parts for other engines of the era.

Andy
 
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