Engines

Engine Developments Ltd.

John Judd began working with Jack Brabham in the early 1960s when Brabham was racing Cooper-Climax Formula 1 cars and Judd was working on the Coventry Climax development program. With the new F1 regulations in 1966 Judd went to work with Repco and then in 1969 began preparing Cosworth DFVs for Jack Brabham Conversions. When Brabham sold the Brabham team to Bernie Ecclestone in 1971 he reorganized his companies and Jack Brabham Conversions became Engine Developments Ltd., with Judd and Brabham as partners in the business.In the years that followed Engine Developments prepared Cosworth engines for many F1 teams such as Williams, Arrows, Lotus, Ensign and Fittipaldi. In the late 1970s the company expanded to preparing Cosworth DFX Indycar engines.In 1980, however, Engine Developments was asked by Honda to develop a new Formula 2 engine. These were used with great success by Ron Tauranac's Ralt F2 team between 1980 and 1984 when they scored 23 victories and won three European F2 Championships. At the same time Judd's Cosworth engines won the Formula 1 title in 1982 with Keke Rosberg's Williams.The Ralt-Honda relationship continued into the new Formula 3000 but as it faded, and Honda concentrated on its own Formula 1 efforts, Judd and John Jakeman designed a new family of V8 engines for CART, Formula 3000 and F1.Judd entered F1 in 1988 with the normally-aspirated CV engine which was used by Williams, Ligier and Leyton House March. The AV became a competitive Formula 3000 engine and the BV was raced in America but won only race with Bobby Rahal's victory at Pocono in 1988.The CV was replaced by a new V8 in 1989 - designed EV - and this was used by Leyton House, while Lotus and Brabham used the older CV engines. In 1990 all three teams used the EV but for 1991 Judd designed a V10 engine for Scuderia Italia. The GV was quite competitive and JJ Lehto used one to finish third at Imola but in 1992 Scuderia Italia switched to Ferrari engines and Judd supplied the struggling Brabham team.At the end of the year the GV was transformed into the Yamaha OX10 and the engines were used by Tyrrell in 1993 and 1994 and 1995. In 1996 Judd designed the JV - which was known as the Yamaha OX11, the first of the new generation of small, lightweight F1 V10s. It was not reliable.Yamaha did a deal with Arrows in 1997 and in Hungary Damon Hill came close to victory but had to settle for second place in the closing laps. Yamaha was left in the lurch at the start of 1998 when Arrows announced that it would be using its own F1 engines but Judd has been continuing his development work. Judd's engines have also been used in sportscar racing and as the FIA-contracted engine supplier for Formula 3000 (1995-98 and 1999-2001). He was also involved in the development of the engines for the Nissan Primera which won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship.