From 1975 to 2005 André-Marie Ruf, better known by the initials AMR created more than 600 models (variants included), mostly in 1/43 scale and in white metal (a lead and tin alloy). Forget about 3D printers, this is manual work.

André-Marie Ruf was born in 1946. Growing up, he showed predispositions for drawing and manual work. As a child, he drew and then sculpted cars in plasticine. As an adult, he collects the models of the great industrialists of the time: Dinky Toys, Solido, Corgi Toys, Norev. And conceives the same frustration as collectors of the time: the news of motorsport is not really followed by manufacturers.

In the early 1970s, he joined a club of scale models. He discovers the sintofer there and learns to deform by candle the plastic of the NOREVs to create at 1/43 the cars seen in magazines or on circuits. A few months after the 1974 24 Hours of Le Mans, he presented his vision of the Le Mans Porsche Turbo to the club. It’s a success: most members want one. So he left his job at Renault and, with the help of his wife Marie-Claude, founded AMR. Production begins in the apartment kitchen. With a never-changed credo: to make quality, whatever the price. The hours are piling up, the mounted models follow one another. But that doesn’t feed her man or her family. So AMR produces kits, first as a subcontractor, then for its full benefit with the X brand, specific to kits. Over time, recruitments and relocations, the premises grow and the finesse of the products improves. AMR-X is always one step ahead of the competition. Cartograf decals and then the introduction of photo-cutting are examples.

In the early 1980s, AMR-X chose to grow further and integrate its main subcontractor by having a workshop built large enough to accommodate a foundry. But the subcontractor discards. Logically the workshop quickly represents a cost much higher than the profitability of AMR-X. So the company is sold, to its biggest client: Minichamps. The new boss is putting the company back on track.

At the end of 1992, André-Marie and Marie-Claude had to leave AMR, production of which ceased shortly after. They participate in the launch of Le Phoenix, which they will also leave fairly quickly to bounce back one last time by launching the company André-Marie RUF. It is under this brand that AMR-X will release mounted models and kits until 2005.