Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia, Euro Car Parts and his classic car collection

When Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia was only 13, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin announced that God had told him to remove around 80,000 Ugandan Asians from the country. They were given 90 days to go.

Sukhpal’s enthusiasm for cars had begun in childhood, when he travelled with his father in a MkI Ford Cortina to the family’s three Total filling stations in Jinja, a city 80km east of Uganda’s capital, Kampala. Then, as refugees with nothing, they landed at RAF Greenham Common.

A year later, the family was at last placed in social housing in London.

Photography: Huckleberry Mountain

“Can you imagine the cars that I saw in London at that time? That was the first thing that struck me,” he recalls. “There were Jaguar XJ6s and E-Types, big Mercedes saloons. Everything was here. It was just like a dream.”

Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia’s early years in London

Sukhpal worked hard throughout his teens: delivering papers in the morning, working in shops during the afternoon and evening, then spending Saturdays at Portobello market and Sundays at Petticoat Lane.

“The markets introduced me to the idea of commerce, buying and selling, customer relations et cetera, but menial tasks didn’t bother me at all. Cleaning toilets or whatever, I’d do it to make some money.”

Eventually, he put aside enough money for his first vehicle. As was the case for plenty of others, it was a Yamaha F1S-E moped when he was 17.

“One day it broke down outside Dutch & Dutch Commercial in Cricklewood. It was raining so heavily, I ran into the shop to stay dry. I pretended to look at properties, but one did actually catch my eye. It was a car accessories shop that they were trying to sell the lease for.”

By the time Sukhpal had raised £5,000, the company had gone bust and shut down. Yet, once it reopened with him at the helm, he lengthened its opening hours and refused to turn away any prospective customer.

“Whatever you wanted, whether it was a spark plug or an engine, it’d be a yes. Then we’d figure out how to get it.”

The business prospered. Sukhpal also indulged his petrolhead side, while supplementing his income, by purchasing cars at auction, repairing them and selling them again. He calls it a hobby.

“I was buying sporty, interesting things like a BMW 320i, a 635CSi, Triumph Stags and TR7s. I had a good network of mechanics who would fix them up, and then I would take them back to auction a couple of weeks later.”

From Highway Autos to Euro Car Parts

Sukhpal renamed the shop, replacing Highway Autos with Euro Car Parts... you can see where this is going.

“To fast forward a 35 year journey, we went from one warehouse and specialising in European cars to opening outlets in Birmingham and Manchester, then supplying parts for all kinds of cars across the country. We became the biggest car parts distributor in the United Kingdom, employing nearly 6,000 people.”

He sold the firm in 2011 for what he calls ‘a fair price’: £225m paid upfront, plus a possible further £55m in bonuses. Sukhpal stayed on the board until disagreements with the company’s American owners eventually led to his departure in late 2018.

He intended to concentrate on the property business he had established alongside his three sons. However, an opening emerged in 2023, and Sukhpal became executive chairman of GSF Car Parts, one of his former rivals.

“We’ve owned it for nearly two years now. We grew revenue 21 per cent in the first year, and another 20 per cent in the second year. We’ve injected energy into the business, invested money, changed systems, bought new vans. With us, the people on the ground are the priority.”

Sukhpal Ahluwalia’s classic cars and India rally plans

His understanding of car parts is especially useful given the classics in his current collection. In addition to a modern BMW i7, Bentley Mulsanne and Ferrari 296, Sukhpal owns an XK140, an E-Type, numerous convertible Mercedes, several Ferraris and a Porsche 911 Targa.

The cars will not remain here indefinitely: Sukhpal intends to retire to India and bring the collection with him.

“One of my dreams is to create a rally that goes from the north to the south of India. And generally, if I get behind something, sooner or later it happens. It’s difficult to drive classic cars in India. They’re now allowing the cars to come in, but you can’t drive them on the road unless it’s part of a rally or something similar. I want to meet with politicians to see if we can change that and create even more of a classic car culture in India.

“For now though, I want to drum up interest in a cross country rally and for people to get in touch if they’re keen. I really want to make it happen. I’d love there to be hundreds of cars. That would be a fantastic sight.”

Consider that TG’s official declaration of interest.