Four Small Wheels 9/2004 The story of André-Marie Ruf. Part 2

history

Once upon a time ... The story of André-Marie Ruf, one of the most controversial figures in the history of model cars. Part 2 - 1981 to 1994
To those who missed part one in the last issue, or have already forgotten it . To sum up: Part one highlighted the rise of AMR, which was created in 1975 after André-Marie Ruf had left the Quality Department of Renault. This 2nd part is dedicated to the fall and rebirth............. On August the first of 1981, the AMR team moved to Grisy-Suisnes, a tiny charming village on the east side of Paris, where the brand new studio had just been finished. The factory of about 300 square metres was organized in order to provide room for everything from model creation to shipment. André-Marie, remaining faithful to the white-metal technique despite the rise of resin, wanted to be free from his main subcontracted nightmare - casting. If any supplier is late, you do not have parts to finish filling the kit boxes and it is not good for business to sell uncompleted models! Not to mention that if you cannot deliver, there is no money.... If anybody knows a way to get money from customers in exchange for half filled boxes, please contact me as soon as possible, I am really interested. Of course you will get 50% of the benefits. So everybody was partying following the move. Everybody except the superstitious Marie-Claude who noticed a bad omen. There were 13 around the table. Dress the guests with togas, kick the children and the wives away, replace them with men, glue hair on André-Marie's bald patch and you might see a supper that took place 1981 years ago. Marie-Claude was not pessimistic in vain: the curse of the Gods of model cars was on its way again, ready to halt AMR's extraordinary success in its tracks. While the shadows were more and more menacing on top of the factory, André-Marie enticed his good friend Arthur Habechian from his job, and together they visited, with cameras hidden in their pens, Western Models and the Claudio Riva (Meri Kits) foundry, to discover the dark secrets that these regular casting men were hiding. Well, bip me sideways with a large barge pole, but how the hell is it possible to cast model cars into a silicon pancake filled with a boiling concoction of lead and pewter? Thanks to new technology, guys able to do this are not burnt like corn flakes anymore making them relatively unattractive to girls. Back in Grisy, Arthur, now known as Habart Moulages and providing French craftsmanship (now retired Ed.), dressed himself with a Mickey Mouse Fantasia disguise and listening to Paul Dukas, the sorcerer's apprentice started working.			In December 1992 to everybody's surprise André-Marie and Marie-Claude having started work at 8 am got sacked at 9 pm. Blitz-firing isn't it? Of course Christmas wasn't merry at all. Except for the Gods of model cars and some competitors who had a good laugh that year. André-Marie was almost dead despite the efforts of his wife, children, employees and customer's support. You might hate him but how would you feel if first you had to sell a company you have worked hard to build up in order to provide for your children, and second if you got sacked from it? It might be French romanticism but it remained an incurable trauma for the people who dedicated their life to their passion. Knowing them I can swear on the Holy Four Small Wheels that they never worked to make money. OK Ruf has got many flaws but he is not greedy, to him money is just a means to enjoy music, cigarettes and good wines. However enough romanticism, let's get back to the saga. Among the people witnessing the fall of AMR there was a guy making opening parts conversions on AMR base models. This was a unique opportunity for him to grow into a major model car company: there were 17 years of experience and controversial but established reputation to recoup. André-Marie who had been waiting for the bailiff's everyday, not to mention being slightly gullible, established a company with this persuasive person. A couple of months later, with most of the AMR crew on board, Le Phoenix was fluttering its wings. But very fast the beautiful bride turned into what André called "a nagging wife". According to André-Marie compromise is for politicians (that is to say the dregs of society) - after his wife got sacked again he quit, followed by Michel Croquefere and Thierry Pinel (Olivier Thuet had already gone to Le Mans Miniatures). Every competitor thought they had finally got rid of Ruf. And the Gods of model cars had turned their attention elsewhere. Taking advantage of this breathing space André-Marie had a dream: "one day l'II be back to the successful years ! One day kit worshippers and I will be walking hand in hand !Thank God ! Free at last ! Free at last!!" Supported and well advised by his remaining friends - not to mention his wife - he created in April 1994 André-Marie Ruf Modèles Réduits. To be continued.........
	But experience just talks when you intend to cast white metal with AMR's quality criterion. If the interior and small parts were easy, the body was tricky. Taking advantage of this, the Gods of model cars threw down a lightning bolt on the AMR team sending to hospital (for 2 months) the only man able to cast bodies. This obviously stopped AMR from selling anything. Considering that the investment on the studio and the machinery involved required a loan and running expenses, a hole appeared in the account!.... Amazingly the bank manager was not friendly anymore, despite red carpets, cocktails and Hawaiian dancing girls. But the production started again and the hole being used to throw money in was rapidly in danger of swallowing the whole of the north-east of France. The two kids started noticing that meat was not appearing as often as before on the family menu. And those were the days when there were no cows convinced they were Napoleon. (We think he's referring to mad cow disease. It's French humour - BH). ln the eighties, AMR was releasing kits and built-up model cars by Jean-Paul Magnette. André-Marie was trying to find extra money and kept on releasing kits for Boutique Auto Moto under the brand BAM-X (Le Mans prototypes), Minichamps (Porsche 356 and 911 mainly) and Annecy Miniatures (Ferrari P4, 412P). At the same time resin kits were becoming a real competitor, cheaper and faster to release following race results. So in 1984 AMR started a limited edition factory releasing built models available on subscription - like the Martini Renault delivery van and the Ferrari SWB California. This was so successful that a new builder had to be found. And this guy who had to reach Magnette's skill level was Thierry Pinel. Keen on English pop music and sharing Rufs passion for cars, practicing the same kind of sarcastic humour "l'ours toulonnais" (the bear from Toulon) started his job at AMR building the limited edition of the Vaillante LM 61.	ln 1985 Ruf entered into partnership with his best customer: Paul Günther Lang (Danhausen Minichamps) and created AMR Diffusion. This company was delivering cars modelled by André Marie but built in Germany. The idea was to provide cheap but nice models. Sadly for model car lovers the models themselves became so poor (by AMR standards) that they were not going to last a century. Thanks to Mr Lang, AMR worked for the German car industry releasing promotional model cars so the order book was full. Apparently things were going well but the barrel was still bottomless. It was very hard to finish the month especially the last 30 days (even in February). ln 1987 the Rufs, wife and husband, were seriously thinking about stopping their kids (Antony and Magali) from studying in order to sell them as pit face workers To avoid this Zola's conversion, André-Marie offered to sell Lang the AMR brand and factory for one symbolic French franc and this move saved the kids from slavery.Once the account was set to zero and after serious investments the AMR company kept going. The team was collaborating with the successful businessman who now drowns the market with a new release a day. They kept going with built models, a new crew was engaged (among them Olivier Thuet who went on to work for Le Mans Miniatures), and they kept going with kits, releasing for example a new GTO improved by technology with '‘only'' 106 parts to assemble it. Yes indeed Ruf was not the boss anymore but the relationship with Lang was very friendly. As industrial (die cast) model cars were starting to be successful again, Lang started producing Max Models (Sauber Mercedes C9, C11). Being built in China they were really making money. The time spent by a craftsman will never be as profitable. Business being business, being more and more involved in industry Lang offered several people to buy AMR but nobody did. For some reason that it's useless to write about now, Ruf and Lang's relationship became bad.