Stuttgart engineer Egon Brütsch, a longtime developer of microcars, failed in his one attempt to mass produce one of his designs. Industrialist Harald Friedrich, who had bought the rights to manufacture the Brütsch 200, a pretty three-wheeled plastic microcar, arranged with Hans Ledwinka, the great engineer-designer, to bring the project up to speed. As it turned out, Ledwinka remodelled everything, and Friedrich then refused to pay Brütsch, claiming that the car was now distinctly different from the Brütsch design. They went to court over the matter, and the court sided with Friedrich. The car, very similar to the Messerschmitt, was produced during the years 1956–1958, a chic sporty convertible.