Car event brings pizzazz to Xenia, benefits Shriners
Powerama Custom Auto and Bike Show is at the Fairgrounds and Expo Center today and Sunday.
The Powerama Custom Auto and Bike Show, an indoor event showcasing vintage and custom cars, comes to the Greene County Fairgrounds & Expo Center in Xenia this weekend.
The event features top-of-theline custom cars, vintage cars, and vehicles themed after franchises like Batman and Scooby-Doo, all hand-painted by custom car artists from all over the country.
The event also includes a model car contest, Gem City pin-up contest, vendors, food and drinks.
“We got vendors, motorcycles, a little bit of everything as far as the old-school days,” said event organizer and custom car enthusiast Shane Syx.
Tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for students, and children 5 and under get in free. Proceeds from the event will benefit Shriners Children’s Hospital of Ohio, Syx said.
The event runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. today, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
The Koolsville Paint Slingers will be doing a charity panel jam, where a host of artists, sign painters,
and hand-stripers each take turns decorating the body of a car. Cars from well-known hand-painting artists will be auctioned off to benefit Shriner’s Hospital.
All the Koolsville Paint Slingers design their custom cars by hand, said Syx, who’s been a professional sign painter for 45 years.
“No vinyl people, it’s just all old-school,” he said. “It’s the craft of being a hand-painted artist.”
The featured car of the event is the Tombstone Territory stagecoach. The custom vehicle is outfitted to look like an old-fashioned stagecoach and rides close to the ground, with exhaust pipes shooting straight up in the air, Syx said.
Syx, who said he’s done 70 shows over 30 years all over the
country, some alongside the Koolsville Paint Slingers, says Dayton hasn’t had a good indoor custom auto show in 25 years. While the Dayton area boasts a large number of cruise-ins and other outdoor shows, the last major indoor event of its kind was held in the now-torn-down Hara Arena in Dayton, he said.
Many of the events that Syx runs or participates in are to benefit local charities.
“I just love to help people. It’s that simple,” he said. “The good Lord gave me the gift, and I’m gonna play it in my own little crazy rotten way.”