When Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia was 13, Uganda’s dictator Idi Amin said God had told him to remove around 80,000 Ugandan Asians from the country. They were given 90 days to depart.
Sukhpal’s enthusiasm for cars had begun in childhood, when he travelled with his father in a MkI Ford Cortina between the family’s three Total filling stations in Jinja, a city about 80 km east of Kampala, Uganda’s capital. Then the family reached RAF Greenham Common as refugees, having lost everything.
It took a further year before they were 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
As a teenager, Sukhpal worked relentlessly: delivering papers in the morning, then taking shop jobs through the afternoon and evening. His weekends were occupied too, with Portobello market on Saturdays and Petticoat Lane on Sundays.
“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 countless others, at 17 it was a Yamaha F1S-E moped.
“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 found £5,000, the company had gone bankrupt and shut its doors. When it reopened with him in charge, however, he lengthened the 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 passion for cars while supplementing his income: he bought cars at auction, repaired them and sold them on again. To him, it was 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 company in 2011 for what he calls ‘a fair price’: £225m paid upfront, plus a possible £55m in bonuses. Sukhpal stayed on its board before falling out with the American owners and departing in late 2018.
His intention had been to concentrate on the property business he had established with his three sons. Yet an opportunity emerged in 2023, making Sukhpal executive chairman of GSF Car Parts, one of Euro Car Parts’ 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.”
Classic cars and an India rally ambition
His expertise in car parts is especially useful considering the classic cars he now has in his collection. Along with a contemporary BMW i7, Bentley Mulsanne and Ferrari 296, Sukhpal owns an XK140, an E-Type, numerous convertible Mercedes models, several Ferraris and a Porsche 911 Targa.
They will not remain in the UK indefinitely, as 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.
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