Shami Kalra Watchmaker and car enthusiast

‘MY UNCLE WAS VERY INFLUENTIAL IN my life when it came to cars. He was a Mercedes-Benz dealer in the 1970s and when he came to visit he was in 450 SEL 6.9s, 280 SEs, the R107 SLs, all the cool stuff. This was the time when waiting lists ran into years, so he did well. Whenever he turned up in something new it was an event in our house. Everyone had Ford Cortinas and Consuls and all the usual stuff, but he’d turn up in these cool cars. It wasn’t only Mercedes, he’d arrive in BMW 2002s and one of the first Mk1 Golf GTIs. He always had German cars around him, I guess that rubbed off on me.

It rubbed off on my father too, because we had a Golf when I was growing up