Wild wild west [London]

Would you buy a used car from this man? Meet Britain's youngest and most eccentric classic car merchant

- OLLIE KEW

Actually, Merlin McCormack does not identify as a 'car dealer'. Reclining in his tumbledown office, I ask how he prefers to be branded. “We like to wind people up. We decorated our f**king showroom like Terry Tibbs' [the used car salesman from Fonejacker] because the thing is a complete farce. I dunno what I am. Guess I'm an idiot who likes cars.”

Self deprecation and a sense of humour (along with a bottomless well of car knowledge inherited from his restoration mad dad) are part of what's got Merlin, only 31 years young, here today. Lord of all he surveys here in his showroom - a 'need to know' location stuffed with 1960s Americana, late 1990s Ferraris, myriad Porsches and smatterings of esoteric Alfas, Fiats and Astons.

We're somewhere in west London. His tinsel flecked headquarters hide in plain sight – even armed with directions I drive clean past and back up in bafflement asking for directions. Not one of the native Londoners nor hurried travellers off to nearby Heathrow have a clue they're mooching mere metres away from literal millions worth in modern classics.

Anyway, he's no lord. He's the Duke, of London. Another joke that got out of hand and became the name of his brainchild. “'Duke of London' was a title offered to Churchill after World War Two,” Merlin explains. “Because he was humble and I guess haunted by war, he politely declined it. But I was arrogant enough to anoint myself as Duke of London.” He laughs and musters a straight face.