To most people, the scenario facing John Judd in 1988 would be a fitting dictionary definition of stress.
For its entry into Formula 1 as an engine manufacturer, the Engine Developments company he’d co-founded with Jack Brabham had undertaken to supply three teams, including Williams following its split with Honda. Its high-profile alliance with the reigning world champion outfit meant Engine Developments would be under an intense spotlight, but it would have to juggle the demands of Leyton House and Ligier too.
Judd also had Formula 3000 and IndyCar on his overflowing plate, but the engineer counters that conventional logic when Autosport asks if he’s ever known a more fraught time.
“I wouldn’t say it was stressful, it was okay,” he replies. “I don’t find engineering generally that stressful. It’s the business bit and people that give you stress!”
Raised in 1950s Coventry when “everybody worked in the motor or aircraft industry”, Judd’s father David worked in a machine shop and passed on his passion for engineering. “When I was a kid, he restored an old Lea-Francis, rebuilt it as a family car,” Judd recalls. “The engine was in the kitchen for a while!”
The young Judd “was very keen on aircraft and aged 11 had a model with a diesel engine that fired his passion for engineering. But plans to become an aeronautical engineer changed after his first visit to an F1 race at Silverstone, witnessing a BRM 1-2-3 led by Jean Behra in the 1957 International Trophy, which “got me a bit keen on racing”.
Photo by: Motorsport Images
The 1957 International Trophy in which Behra led a BRM podium sweep captured the interest of the young Judd and set him on a path to a career in motorsport
Judd applied for apprenticeships at Jaguar and Coventry Climax, but was turned down by the former “because the school told them I was a bit of a naughty boy, which I was”. But after his father, who worked for the brother of Coventry Climax boss Leonard Pelham Lee, “pulled strings with his boss” Judd was taken on as an apprentice design draughtsman in 1958 and spent the next five years learning the trade. This included six months in the petrol engine development department which dealt with racing engines, so Judd was “working in some capacity or other on Jack Brabham’s 2.5-litre F1 engine in 1959”.
“I was very thankful that Jaguar wouldn’t take me, it was an absolute stroke of luck,” he…
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