People

John Judd

John Judd is the boss of Engine Developments Ltd., a company which he owns in partnership with triple World Champion Sir Jack Brabham.Judd was born in Coventry in 1942 - not long after the city was devastated by German bombing raids. He left school and won an apprenticeship with the Coventry engine company, which enabled him to study at the local technical college. In the early 1960s he began working on the Coventry Climax Formula 1 engine - which was used at the time by Jack Brabham. In 1965 the International Automobile Federation decided to change the engine formula for 1966 and Sir Jack did a deal with an Australian company called Repco, to design and build the new 3-liter engines for Brabham. Judd worked on the project under engine designer Phil Irving and the Repco Brabhams won two consecutive Drivers' and Constructors' Championships in 1966 and 1967.Brabham then moved on to use the Ford Cosworth DFV engine and started a company called Jack Brabham Conversions, hiring John Judd to do development work on the Cosworth DFV engines. When Brabham sold Brabham to Bernie Ecclestone he reorganized his companies and Jack Brabham Conversions became Engine Developments. In the years that followed Engine Developments prepared Cosworth engines for teams such as Williams, Arrows, Lotus, Ensign and Fittipaldi.In the late 1970s the company expanded to preparing Cosworth DFX Indycar engines. In 1980 Judd was hired by Honda to develop F2 engines. At the end of 1982, as Honda went into F1, Judd began designing his own engines, initially in Formula 3000 but later in Indycars and F1 as well.He entered F1 in 1988 with a V8 engine for Williams, Ligier and March. The V8 was still being used by customers as late as 1992. In 1991 Judd revealed a V10 engine which was used by Scuderia Italia in a Dallara-designed car.During 1992 Judd began to work with Yamaha on its F1 engines - trying to help out Jordan - and when Tyrrell and Yamaha did a deal for 1993 Judd was part of the package. Judd and Yamaha produced the OX10 family of engines for 1993-94-95 but for 1996 he built the OX11, the first of the new generation F1 V10 engines, which was much smaller and lighter than all existing units. It was not reliable but Mika Salo finished fifth in a Tyrrell-Yamaha in Brazil and at Monaco.A new relationship began in 1997 with Tom Walkinshaw's Arrows team, which was running Damon Hill and Pedro Diniz. Hill came close to winning in Hungary. At the start of 1998 Arrows announced that it would be using its own F1 engines in 1998 and the Yamaha program in F1 ended. Judd continued to develop his V10 engine in 1998 and 1999 and there were suggestions that he might be involved in the design of the Toyota F1 V10.In the interim Judd turned his attention to tuning engines for the British Touring Car Championship.