A little over a week ago, a post appeared on a British Subaru forum: A father had just found out his son was terminally ill with cancer and he wanted to give him one last thrill with a small car show on September 8th.
That small request went viral after we posted it and, instead of a small car meetup, more than 1,000 cars showed up to give him the best day of his life. There were new Ferraris, vintage Lamborghinis, and a lot of Subarus, including cars from the company.
Normally the cars are the stars at shows like these. But this time, it was Connor. "It was the best car show I've ever seen," friend of Jalopnik Alex Roy told us. It wasn't about cars competing with each other, rather "everyone was competing to get Connor in their cars."
Connor's family took him off his meds for the show, since they normally make him groggy. If someone with a cool car saw him, they brought him over and had him sit in the cars and start and rev the engine.
Over the course of one week, car enthusiasts from around the world came together to organize a blowout car show for young Connor. After three days there were more than 200 cars committed. Then there were 600 cars and finally, day of, double that number. People who never met each other before and hadn't met Connor came together from around the world.
Before the show on Friday, about 1,000 cars had officially committed and entries were closed since they couldn't physically fit more cars on the property. But that was nothing compared to the day of the show.
Alex Roy flew over from America and let us know about the nitty gritty that went on behind the scenes.
He told us that the show had a specified start time of 1:00 PM, and when Alex arrived at 1:30 there were cars parked on both sides of the road for nearly two miles. If you estimate that the average car takes up around 18 feet, that means there were nearly 1,200 cars parked outside the show itself.
Alex was the last car that was let into the show. Apparently, cars began arriving at 10:30 AM and they simply couldn't fit any more in the parking lot. Huddersfield Police confirmed that they had approximately 1,000 cars in the show itself. Alex told us that it was so crowded he was only able to see half of the show.
And people didn't just come from England. Alex told us there were people there from France, Ireland, and even a man that brought a Noble to the show from Cyprus.
Alex told us Connor was laughing and smiling the entire day. Connor's father and grandfather were front and center, and his Dad was super emotional for the outpouring of support, as you'd expect. Many of the people who showed up were fathers themselves, hoping to brighten the day of a fellow car guy.
Donations can still be made to honor Connor. Blip Shift is also offering a commemorative T-Shirt and they will be donating all the proceeds to charity. Subaru has also donated a track day to Connor, and hopefully he'll be able to use it very soon.
Next year, Connor's Day will return and will hopefully be bigger and better than this year's. It's the best thing the car community can do to honor this very special enthusiast.
(Big Thanks to everyone that sent in pictures from the event!)