Vehicle Description
1978 Pontiac Trans Am MACHO T/ANumber 102 of 203 Produced 1 of
1Ultra - RareFully RestoredPHS DocumentsDocumented HistoryOnly Two
Documented Owners AWESOME CONDITION INSIDE AND OUT This is a very
rare opportunity to own a piece of automotive history. MACHO T/A's
are extremely rare, they are all unique in their paint schemes,
color combinations and various performance modifications. No two
are alike making this MACHO T/A a true ONE of ONE car. Being that
there were only 203 MACHO T/A's produced in 1978, you have to ask
yourself a few questions. How many actually come up for sale? How
many only have had TWO documented owners in 40 years? How many
still have their original drivetrain? How many have been very well
"used" and wasted away? How many have rotted away? How many have
been wrecked? How many look like this? These are the questions you
have to ask yourself when making an investment in a numbered car.
No TWO MACHO T/A's ARE EQUIPPED THE SAME! Yes, they made 203 MACHO
T/As in 1978 and EVERYONE of them is uniquely equipped. They came
with a wide variety of paint schemes, color combinations, engine
modifications, suspension modifications, and some interior
modifications. In 1978, General Motors produced 93,341 Trans Ams.
Only 203 were converted into MACHO T/As. In perspective, the MACHO
T/A only represents less than half of 1% of all the Trans Ams
produced. Thats RARE! This particular MACHO T/A lived in Arizona
with its original owner until 2003 when it was shipped to New York
to its second owner. It was fully restored to its former glory in
2006. Attention was paid to how the car was originally delivered to
the original owner. This MACHO T/A is mechanically sound. It
starts, idles, drives, stops like it looks! This is hard to convey
how nice a car functions from just pictures and a short video. The
paint scheme including the "screaming chicken" is how it was
presented to the original owner. The paint is stunning. The
undercarriage was treated with sound deadener. This is NOT
undercoated. The sheet metal on this car has ZERO rust issues,
pitting or soft spots. The W72 TA 6.6 engine roars to life and runs
strong. It features Hooker Headers and dual catalytic converters
just like the original MACHO T/A systems had. The converters served
as mufflers as they removed for the MACHO T/A conversions. The
second generation Trans Am's are screaming up the collectibility
charts in value and demand. Documented Ultra-Rare Numbered cars
such as the MACHO T/A's lead the pack. They rarely ever come up for
sale, here is your chance to own a piece of history. A little
history on how the MACHO T/A's came to life. Back in 1977, Dennis
and Kyle Mecham built 26 performance-tweaked Trans Ams that they
dubbed MACHO T/As and initially sold through their family's Pontiac
dealership, Mecham Motors, near Phoenix, Arizona. The modified
Trans Ams were a hit and the fledgling company, DKM Design,
Performance sold all they could build, so they ramped up production
in 1978 and marketed the cars through other Pontiac dealers. Sales
of the warmed-up Firebirds soared to 204 units. But, uh, what of
that oh-so-Seventies name?"At that time, macho was the 'in' word in
the Southwest," said Dennis Mecham, now president of Mecham Design,
Performance. "Everything was macho. In desperation, I said, 'Why
not call it MACHO T/A?' It was almost tongue-in-cheek. It may not
be the best name, but how can you forget it?" Buyers certainly
approved. Mecham recalls a leasing company that wanted to purchase
several of the cars sans the Macho lettering. But at DKM's urging,
they purchased three without the decals and three with. Customers
greedily snapped up the lettered cars first. The recipe for the
MACHO T/A was straightforward: DKM would purchase new Trans Ams,
perform its modifications, and resell them as used cars to Pontiac
dealers. Under the hood, DKM would richen the jetting of the stock
Quadrajet and change the distributor's curve to bring in 36 degrees
of advance at 2,500 rpm. DKM also opened up the sealed shaker hood
scoop, increasing airflow to the stock airbox, and installed screen
over the opening. A set of off-the-shelf Hooker Headers were bolted
up and plumbed up with a 2.5-inch dual exhaust with a crossover
tube and two catalytic converters eliminating the restrictive stock
system. "No mufflers or resonators are found, though the exhaust
remains reasonably mellow," Hot Rod magazine wrote in its July 1978
review of a MACHO T/A. "In fact, a decibel meter may disagree, but
to the human ear, a MACHO T/A sounds no louder than a stocker,
which runs one converter and a pair of mufflers." DKM also dropped
the front end by 1.5 inches, installed Koni adjustable shocks at
all four corners, and put 60 series tires on the factory rims.
Color combinations were left up to the customer's discretion and,
while there were two dozen interior/exterior color combinations
listed in the DKM brochure, an additional $150 allowed that
customer to choose a special color. Add another $150 and the
graphics would be applied using DuPont's Imron paint. "If it
sounded reasonable and the guy wanted it, we'd do whatever they
wanted," Mecham said. The young Mecham stumbled on the idea of
building a post-factory Pontiac super car (at least by late-'70s
standards) quite by accident. He was running a weekly newspaper
that his family owned and driving a late-model Pontiac Catalina
when the urge to act his age became too strong to ignore. "I
thought, if I don't stop driving Catalinas, pretty soon I'll be old
enough that I'll actually want one," Mecham said. Mecham and his
friend Mike Garrett began tinkering with a 1975 Formula 400 HO.
They managed to wake the car up by fattening the lean factory
jetting, opening up the airbox and working some advance into the
distributor. Mecham did more of the same mods to his new
455-powered 1976 Trans Am--a car that his father, the late Evan
Mecham, took a liking to and saw some sales potential in. "My
father came down and I had the 455 T/A in my garage," Mecham said.
"He took it for a ride and said, 'I wish I could sell a car like
that to our customers.' " So as an experiment, the brothers Mecham
added headers and aftermarket wheels to their list of Trans Am mods
and put a fresh example on the showroom floor. It sold in three
days. Working part-time in 1977, they built and sold 26 cars,
making a tidy profit on each. Thus, one of the few Disco-Era
performance legends was born. In fact, it would've lived on for
many more years had Pontiac not installed the 301 in the Trans
Am--an engine that simply didn't have the latent potential that the
400 and 455s had. "We stopped making them in 1980 because the car
was no longer viable," Mecham said. "If you got any real horsepower
(out of the 301), you were rebuilding a hand grenade." Throughout
the 1990s, the cars of the 1970s were regarded disdainfully by
collectors, but something funny happened one day on the way to the
car show--'70s machinery, particularly Trans Ams sporting black
paint and gold eagles, became not just collectible, but hot. Riding
the tail feathers of this trend are DKM's Macho T/As. Mecham's
warmed up 'birds have attracted a cult following among collectors
who fondly remember the days when clothing and furniture
manufacturers were vying with the Bee Gees to see who could sell
the most vinyl. Call NOW to put this MACHO T/A in YOUR driveway!
$$$$$$$$$$$$ FINANCING Available $$$$$$$$$$$$Rates As Low As
5.99%Terms Up To 120 Months WARRANTY This vehicle is being sold as
is, where is with no warranty, expressed written of implied. The
seller shall not be responsible for the correct description,
authenticity, genuineness, or defects herein, and makes no warranty
in connection therewith. No allowance or set aside will be made on
account of any incorrectness, imperfect