Rudd became interested in motor racing during the 1930s when he acted as an informal assistant to Prince Chula and Prince Bira's White Mouse Racing team. That early exposure inspired a career in engineering, and family connections led him to an apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce beginning in early 1939. He remained at Rolls-Royce through the Second World War, accelerating through the company's engineering departments. By the summer of 1944 he was effectively running the Defects Investigation Department, correlating failure reports and extracting information to improve repair procedures for aero engines.
Rudd was seconded to BRM in 1951 to help resolve problems with the Rolls-Royce supercharger installation on the troublesome BRM V16 engine — a posting originally intended to last a few months from which he never returned to Rolls-Royce. Over nearly two decades with BRM he rose from a development role to full technical control of the team, assuming that responsibility in 1960 after Peter Berthon and Raymond Mays were sidelined following a drivers' threatened strike.
Rudd imposed proper engineering procedures on what had been a chaotic organisation. His spaceframe and then monocoque V8-engined designs brought BRM to the peak of the sport, delivering both a Drivers' World Championship and a Constructors' World Championship. However, his next major engine programme — the H16, conceived by stacking two of the successful 1.5-litre V8 units — proved heavy and overcomplicated. The engine struggled with breathing difficulties and an unfavourable power-to-weight ratio, and the team lost competitiveness through the late 1960s. As a parallel project during this difficult period, Rudd organised the design of a compact V12 sports-car racing engine by Geoff Johnson, an engine that would underpin BRM's later resurgence after his departure.
Rudd and Peter Wright also worked on a ground-effect car concept at BRM during this era; the project was abandoned after driver John Surtees declared it unraceable. The two engineers would later be reunited at Lotus on work that achieved far greater results.
After a difficult 1969 season and management changes at BRM, Rudd left to join Lotus Cars. Working initially on the road-car side of the business, he rose to the position of Engineering Director. His achievements in that role included the development of Lotus's own four-cylinder engine and a sustained improvement in production quality. He also built Lotus into a respected engineering consultancy, winning high-technology development contracts from other automotive manufacturers and creating a significant additional revenue stream for the company.
In the mid-1970s, with Team Lotus struggling in Formula One, Rudd led the research effort that produced the Lotus 78 — the first fully realised ground-effect Grand Prix car, which used shaped underbody tunnels and sliding skirts to generate aerodynamic downforce from the underside of the car. The Lotus 78 and its successor the Lotus 79 returned the team to the front of Grand Prix racing and triggered an industry-wide shift toward ground-effect design that defined Formula One until the rules banned the concept in 1983.
Following that achievement Rudd returned to the road-car side of Lotus, conducting research into active suspension, turbocharging, and consultancy projects for external manufacturers. After the death of Colin Chapman in 1982, Rudd took on an increasingly significant role within the broader Lotus business while continuing to focus on advanced engineering.
Following the conviction of Fred Bushell for financial irregularities connected to the DeLorean affair, the Chapman family — who retained ownership of Team Lotus — asked Rudd to step in and lead the racing team. He returned to the pit lane in 1989, serving for a year until the team was sold, then retired to work as a freelance consulting engineer.
In retirement Rudd remained active in the Society of Automotive Engineers. He wrote an autobiography, It Was Fun: My Fifty Years of High Performance, and collaborated with motorsport historian Doug Nye on a multi-volume history of BRM. Tony Rudd died in 2003 at the age of 80. His career encompassed two of the most significant technical innovations in Formula One history — BRM's championship era and the ground-effect revolution at Lotus — making him one of the most influential behind-the-scenes engineers in the sport.