1937 Rudge Sports Special

Among the line-up of various Rudge machines, this Sports Special attracted my attention, with its upswept exhausts which were marketed as having an ‘advanced design, permitting very high performance with commendable degree of silence.’ These were particular to this late Rudge model, along with its smaller toolboxes mounted on a valance on the rear mudguard. Other than this, the Rudge was the same as the Special model, with a 495cc four-valve overhead valve engine, which incorporated an Aerolite, closeclearance, non-slap piston. The valve gear on these engines is enclosed in the cylinder head, which could be removed while leaving the petrol tank in situ, a well thought through design. The Sports Special was one of the last models to be made by Rudge in their final years before being bought by EMI and so the model only saw two years of production from 1937 to 1939. This example was bought by the current owner 40 years ago as a basket case, fully restored and ridden extensively. Unfortunately, the Sports Special was involved in a crash on the Engineers Run in 1990, where the front end was pushed so far back the forks were past the engine. A lengthy rebuild was undertaken, with the forks rebuilt using seamless tubing with each side of the fork taking a week to complete.