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.
In May 2008, Muller gave an interview to French magazine Sport Auto revealing details about his company's project. However, Ferrari immediately stepped in and filed a lawsuit against him, putting a stop to the any projects related to its models until the issue was resolved.
Muller told Carscoop that he tried to reach an agreement with the Italian company but said Ferrari "wouldn’t even speak" to him as the automaker insisted it had the sole rights to the Auto Avio Costruzioni name since it was Enzo Ferrari’s property.
Notably, this isn't the first time we've heard about Ferrari's legal team picking a fight. In 2008, Ferrari made headlines when it threatened to take legal actions against a UK man that wanted to turn his 360 Modena into a stretch limousine.
But back to Muller, after Ferrari blocked his plans, he decided to make use of the Auto Avio Construzioni trademark to create a one-off Alfa Romeo 159 he bought from the collapsed Greek car market. Among other modifications, the Auto Avio Construzioni team upgraded the sport sedan's 1.8-liter turbocharged inline four boosting output from 200HP and 340Nm to 240HP and 370 Nm, while also painting the body in a two-tone finish.
For Laurent Miller's side of the story, scroll down to read the letter he sent to Carscoop:
From Laurent Muller:
Since 2004 I am the owner of the trademark "Auto Avio Costruzioni". This was the name Enzo Ferrari choose for his company when he left Alfa Romeo in 1939. The agreement with Alfa said that he couldn't use his name to build a car during 4 years as he left Alfa Romeo ( Scuderia Ferrari was in fact a great name for Alfa racing).
With the money Enzo founded his company. (with no possibility to build cars...) But in the end of 1939, he receive an order to build 2 cars for the Mille Miglia of 1940. At the start of the race 2 "Auto Avio Costruzioni 815" were there.
So this was the only 2 cars built, and after the war in 1947, the next Ferrari car was the 125, the first real Ferrari. But you already know the story...
So in 2004, I have the idea of buying the trademark and with some friends we wanted to build a special car based on a Ferrari F430, but with a V12 engine.
After 4 years, we announced the project in the French Sport Auto of May 2008. The car was due in 2010 to celebrate the 70 years of the first Auto Avio 815...
But as soon as Ferrari see the article, they decided to make a law suit against us. So all the project was stopped, and since then we are waiting for the law suit to really begins.
We first try to make an agreement with Ferrari, but it was quite impossible to speak with them, so arrogant that the only solution for us is to go to the end of the law suit to prove them that they have no rights on this trademark (the deposit was never done by Ferrari Spa during more than 60 years...and now they claims that Auto Avio belongs to them because it was Enzo creation...).
All this is not really interesting for you, but what I want to tell you is the fact that, we have for the moment no rights to modify a Ferrari, but we use our trademark to transform an Alfa Romeo 159 TBi. It is a one-piece edition, with a special color red- metal grey Touring (an Alfa color) with an 1.8 turbo with 240 Horsepower and 370 NM (instead of 200 HP and 320 NM) (with special ECU)
What is funny is that we can sell this car for only 39'900 Swiss francs ( approx. 32,000 euros), a far less than the catalog price of the original one. We bought the car from the Greek market where Alfa could not sell any 159 anymore...
We hope to make a great Ferrari one day, but we will see if the law is the same for the little we are as for a big company like Ferrari.
I send you this story, because I think you are the only one that can speak about it, all the cars newspapers are too afraid of never testing again the future new red cars of Maranello..."
