Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The Story of a Man who Bought the Rights to the Auto Avio Construzioni Name Only to be Sued by Ferrari


As we’ve already mentioned in our tribute to Enzo Ferrari, the founder of one of the most iconic brands in the world initially worked for Alfa Romeo. As the story has it, in 1939 he left the Milanese carmaker, but part of the agreement was that he could not manufacture any vehicles under his name for four years – so he used the Auto Avio Construzioni brand instead.

The years passed by and following the end of WWII, Enzo Ferrari finally founded his own brand and produced its first car, the 125. The rest, as they say, is history – or so we thought until Laurent Miller sent Carscoop an email describing his story that has to do with the Auto Avio Construzioni brand name and his legal quarrel with Ferrari.

Muller's involvement began in 2004 when he claims to have bought the right to the Auto Avio Construzioni trademark with plans to build a bespoke Ferrari F430 fitted with a V12 engine instead of the regular model's V8 powerplant.

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