The Mecham Macho Machines

Since I've mentioned them in a few posts, people have me to talk about the Macho T/A. Here's the story. In 1976, a guy named Dennis Mecham had a 1975 Pontiac Trans-Am that he had mildly hot-rodded. Everyone who drove or rode in his car raved about how cool it was, and said the factory should make them that way. His father owned Mecham Pontiac in Arizona and his brother Kyle was a mechanic at the dealership. Just for kicks, they tricked out a new T/A similar to the way Dennis had done his, and put it on the showroom floor. It sold for full sticker, plus the upgrades in one day. They did another, and it sold in one day. By the end of the model year, they had 27 or 28 of them rumbling around the Phoenix area. This encouraged them to try to go nationwide. They formed DKM Inc.-( for Dennis and Kyle Mecham) in 1977 and started promoting the cars to magazines like Car and Driver, Hot Rod, Car Craft, etc. "Macho" was a popular term back then-The Village People's first big hit was "Macho Man." Thus a Trans-Am on steroids was a "Macho T/A."  They started by opening up the shaker hood scoop and rejetting the carb, as well as re-curving the HEI distributor. Hooker Headers were added, as well as a real dual exhaust system that consisted of two catylitic converters, 2 1/4  inch pipes and two resonators, but no mufflers. Needless to say they sounded wicked. DKM claimed these mods added 50-70 hp. The Macho package also included special graphics either with or without the big hood bird, and the suspension was lowered slightly, and Koni shocks installed. Four-speeds got the stock shifter upgraded to a Hurst Competition Plus unit, and automatics got a TransGo shift kit. You could also upgrade the transmission to a Doug Nash 5-speed manual. Stiffer rearend gears could be ordered, and you had your choice of the factory Snowflake wheels or Center Lines, American Racing or Compomotive wheels. A Hooker chrome rollbar was installed, and Recaro or Scheel seats could be ordered. The magazines loved them. In 1978 Hot Rod tested a stock WS6 T/A against a Macho at the dragstrip. The stocker ran a 15.20 et. Not bad for the late '70s when performance was at an all time low for everyone. The Macho ripped off a blistering 14.29 second blast, nearly a full second quicker, and within one-tenth of the 14.17 e.t. recorded by Car and Driver's Ram Air III 1970 T/A test car. Pretty impressive. All the buff magazines raved about them. They couldn't build them fast enough to meet demand. They built about 200 in 1977, another 300 in 1978 and about 300 in 1979. In 1979 the automatic cars all had 403 Olds engines, and the modifications gave very good, if not spectacular results, like the four-speed Pontiac engined models. They started doing Z/28 Camaros in a similar fashion and calling them The "Macho Z". They even did a few Corvettes and called them the "L82S".  Then the party was over. Because the Machos were modified, GM wouldn't give an MSO-Manufacturers Statement of Originality. This caused several states to not allow their dealers to sell them. The Mecham brothers skirted this in every state but Colorado, by saying that they bought the cars from Mecham Pontiac, tricked them out and re-sold them, to other dealers as used cars, who re-sold them to the public as used cars. California and several other states wanted to outlaw them. Then Pontiac announced that the 400 big-blocks would not be available after 1979. The 1980 models had the ill-fated 301 Turbo, and in California and High Altitude areas a 305 Chevy that wheezed out 145 hp. The 301 Turbos could not be modified with much success because of the then-fledgling electronically managed distributors and carburators. The Mechams were Mormon, and Kyle Mecham had to go on his Mormon mission for two years, which just about killed DKM. Denniss was the salesman and promoter that got the magazines and everyone hyped up, and designed the graphics and modification packages, but Kyle was the guy who ran the shop that actually did the work. Very few 1980 Machos exist, and the last time I corresponded with Dennis Mecham, he said there were no 1981 models.  In 1982 GM changed the bodystyle. In 1983-84, the brothers tried again with the "MSE" Trans-Am-which stood for "Mecham Special Editon." However, this was basically just an appearance package, as the only engine available was still a 305 Chevy that put out about 165 hp. Or 190 hp in "High Output" trim. Again, those horrible mid-80's electronic quadrajets and distributors prevented them from extracting any real power. Remember
"Carburator Dwell" and "Transmission Controlled Spark".?  Anyhow, that was the story of the short, but glorious life of the "Macho T/A."  If your restoring one, or just want to paint yours like one, Dennis Mecham has liscenced Phoenix Graphics to sell the stencils and stripe kits. They were and still are cool, because as Dennis said in 1978- "Their great because you can live with a Macho every day." "They look tough, their fast enough to back up the image, the engine idles smoothly, the seats are comfortable, and the suspension won't rattle your fillings loose."  Sounds like a good musclecar to me. Mastermind