The Authi car company of Pamplona, Spain, was founded in 1965 as a result of a collaboration between BMC (the British Motor Corporation) and NMQ (Nueva Montaña Quijano).BMC needed a way to sell their cars in Spain, which at the time had strict rules to protect local automobile manufacturers from imported competitors and to protect local companies from foreign takeover. Thus, Authi built almost identical copies of a range of Austin and Morris cars.