Tony Rudd It Was Fun! My Fifty Years of High Performance

Please note this example has an address label/sticker on the front end paper from the original owner.

During more than 50 years as an engineer in the world of high performance engine development and Grand Prix racing, Tony Rudd has become a world renowned authority, highly respected for his innovative methods. His racing life has spanned the period from the resumption of Grand Prix racing after the Second World War through to the present day. 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. The story he tells is both an exciting read and a reliable eye witness account which sets straight the historical record. 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's 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 F1 World Championship. Seven years later Tony Rudd joined Colin Chapman at Lotus where he worked for more than 20 years until his retirement in March 1991. There, travelling globally to develop business contacts throughout the world, he built up Lotus Engineering's profitability to the £5 million a year mark, latterly also running Team Lotus to try to revive its failing fortunes. So, far from enjoying a gentle coast towards retirement, Tony Rudd faced an escalating workload and frantic schedule right to the end. But that was like water off a duck's back to this remarkable man who personifies the ingenuity, organisational ability and sheer spirit that has put Britain at the top of the world GP car constructors' and race teams' leagues.