UNUSUAL AUTHIS ARE UP FOR SALE

In his book The cars of BMC, Graham Robson wrote: 'In the mid-1960s, BMC decided the only way to break into the Spanish market (whose import tariffs were already very high) was to build the cars locally.

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They acquired a site at Pamplona with the intentions of manufacturing front-wheel-drive Morris 1100s in that country. This was the Authi project.' The Authi partnership lasted only until 1974, with the first cars featuring a mixture of the exterior of the British Morris 1100 Mk1 and the interior of the contemporary Austin 1100. The horn control bore the local coats of arms, while the bonnet badge depicted a bull's silhouette inside the outline of the Iberian Peninsula.

The 1100 Club in the UK recently heard from Pablo Perez, who had stumbled across a number of cars closely connected with the Authi project during a visit to a warehouse in Torneros del Bernesga, northern Spain.

Justiniano Fernandez Robles had originally set up a workshop repairing cars of all makes, but he began to specialise in the Authibuilt models. Justiniano died in 1986, but his widow, Rosario Gutiérrez, continued to operate the workshop until she retired in 2011. She then moved the remaining cars that were her property to a warehouse located in the village where she was born, Torneros del Bernesga, around seven miles south of León.

As well as a few Authi Minis, the selection numbered a variety of the local 1100/1300 models, including an Austin Victoria De Luxe, which features the same bodywork as the South African-built Apache, but few of the cars were totally complete.

The warehouse is now very dirty and dusty, with pigeons having made their way in to roost after gaining access through windows that had been broken by vandals.