Another busy week with a couple of drop in services left with us. We managed to hand back three larger project cars to their owners who were more than happy with the hand overs. We were tempted to ask for payment in toilet rolls due to the the stupidity of people stockpiling them here in the UK. When we last checked the Coronavirus didn’t effect the functionality of the bowels, it attacked the lungs! More people die of flu and complications each year than the pandemic Corona outbreak. Never the less, we are now binge watching The Walking Dead for tips on how to survive the Zombie Apocalypse – Not! Anyway back to being sensible, we have had a rare car in this week..

Customer Cars

Before we get into the car itself we need to give you a little history of the car. There is not a huge amount of info on Ruddspeed, but we have found some information:

In November 1945 Ken Rudd started a business from a disused stable in Worthing, from these humble beginnings of working on general engineering for local farmers he graduated to more specialised work on sports cars, he called the company K.N. Rudd (Engineering) Ltd. With a steady flow of work he soon ran out of space, so had to move to new premises in Worthing’s Victoria Road.

In 1953 he had become sufficiently well know as a competition driver to be invited by Donald Healey to understudy for him at Le Mans. At the motor show that year he bought himself an Ace which he raced until 1958, the AC marque was to be the backbone his business.

He formed Ruddspeed Ltd, to undertake tuning conversions for Austin Healeys, Volvos, Alfas and later converting Ford Mustangs to Right Hand Drive cars. He also occasionally worked on one-off projects for customers.

“Sadly Ken passed away in 2010, but his aim was always to take a good car and make them even better, we here at Ruddspeed wish to continue with that tradition.”

A couple of nice adverts featuring the Rudd Mustangs.

You probably guessed now that we had one of these rare Ruddspeed right hand drive conversions with us. The car has been over here in the UK since it was new, and obviously has suffered due to our weather. The car had door skins a good few years ago and were now showing signs of the dreaded rust worm again on the doors. Knowing full well that the same would happen again it was decided to put new doors on. The customer wanted to buy a couple of doors from us and fit them himself. Such a task is not simple and they need to be ‘fitted’ not just bolted on. Sometimes that ‘fitting’ means cutting the doors or patching bit on to make the gaps correct. On top of that there needs to be two paint jobs, inside the doors as the outsides.

Mustang Maniac to the rescue, with new doors and proper matched paint job to the rest of the car.

This car has a little history as Adam had a chance to buy it a number of years ago, but decided to pass on it. However he was glad to see her back and now ready for the road again.

Cervini Convertible

A much more modern little lady now which has had a Cervini body kit fitted to her. A nice kit on a convertible which prompts you to get out of the way. The Cervini was parked up next to Adams ‘latest’ Hertz GT-H which is now been added to the growing Hertz/Shelby collection!

It’s still business as usual for now at Mustang Maniac in this cray world of Coronavirus, if you feel the need to donate a few toilet rolls, just let us know. 😀

Oh the irony!