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 Born in 1946 Andre Marie Ruf started his career in the French car industry. He first became interested in model cars by modifying diecast produced by French firm Norev.

 By the mid 70's John Day and others had started producing white metal kits for the model car collectors producing kits of cars which had never been and were never likley to be modelled by the major diecast manufacturers. Andre Marie Ruf felt that he could make high quality handbuilt models which would appeal to the same collectors market so on 1st April 1975 AMR launched their first model, the Porsche Carrera RSR Martini Racing no22 Le Mans 1974. The model sold well for such a small niche market and a total of 1200 were made and other hand built models foillowed, the last probably being the Greenwood Corvette Spirit of Le Mans.

 In 1976 AMR launched their first kit for the new AMR-X range - Ferrari BB512 NART Sebring 1975 and Jean Pierre Viranet joined AMR to make the masters for models of F1, F2 and F3 single seaters for a new range known as X-Tenariv.

 1979 saw the introduction of the Ferrari 250 GTO kit, the first 1/43 kit to include photo etched parts and also the first kit to feature AMR's superb handmade wire wheels which, even more than 30 years later, are still the benchmark by which all other manufacturers wire wheels are judged. The same year AMR also released the 97 part Ferrari BB512 LM with lift off panels and full engine detail, probably the most complex 1/43 kit available at that time. The company continued to go from strength to strength producing models for others including Gyl, Minichamps (Danhausen) and well known Paris model shop Boutique Auto Moto (BAM) as well as those for AMR's own ranges and built up a reputation among collectors worldwide for producing kits with high quality castings which, when built, captured the character of the real car.

 In 1984 AMR relaunched factory built models the first being a run of 600 Ferrari 250 SWB California Spyder all finished to the same high standard that had made AMR a legend among model car collectors. Other handbuilt models and kits followed including several kit versions of the Ferrari P4 for Annecy Miniatures but although everything appeared rosy on the surface Ruf had serious money probelms and in 1987 he had little option but to sell AMR to the Lang Brothers, owners of both the Minichamps brand and the famous Danhausen shop in Aachen, Germany.
 Although he no longer owned the company Andre Marie Ruf continued to work for AMR but left in December 1992 leaving behind the AMR brand. From February 1993 he worked for Le Phoenix creating several models which were unmistakably Ruf's work.

 In 1994 Ruf returned to the model car world trading as Andre Marie Ruf continuing to make models and kits to his usual high standard and in 2003 the 1/12 scale Titan range of kerbside resin kits was launched but Andre Marie had become ill with cancer and passed away on 1st August 2004. He had left a legacy of some finished and part finished masters which were used to produce new models after his death but the business closed in September 2005. 

 Mr Ruf is still regarded by collectors worldwide as one of the most talented modelmakers ever to work in the specialist 1/43 model car industry and his models are highly prized by collectors.