Mikes Reply:
The DKM Macho Trans Am & The MR MSE Trans Am
The history of the Macho Trans Am dates back to 1977 when two brothers, Dennis and
Kyle Mecham, sons of a Phoenix area Pontiac dealer decided to begin modifying
Firebirds to restore some of the missing performance brought about by the addition of
more and more emissions equipment on factory cars. The brothers began by adding
turbochargers in 1977. In 1978 203 Macho TAs would come out of the DKM shop. A
W72/L78 engine was used as a baseline, the carb and ignition were modified and a set
of Hooker headers and twin catalytic converters were added for a net 50bhp gain. An
optional turbo-charger could also be added for a 7psi boost. Interestingly, the TAs
were all sold as used cars. This was required because Federal law prohibited any
modifications to the emissions system on a new car. The dealership, Mecham Pontiac,
sold the new cars to Mecham Performance. The modifications were performed and the
cars were then sold to the public. They had virtually no miles on them and had no
tags but were sold as a used car because the had already been titled by Mecham
Performance.
Production continued in 1979 where both the 400 and 403 versions of the Trans Am
received the modifications required for a Macho Trans Am. DKM performed several other
modifications including modifying the hood scoop to make it functional. Suspensions
were also modified by adding Koni shocks, front springs retempered for rake and re-
calibrated geometry. Visual appearance was also changed. Macho options included
Recaro or Scheel seats, Fosgate stereo, different wheels and tires, fiberglass hood
and the new paint scheme that varied by color. Every Macho TA also received a
production number
1979 also saw the release of a very limited run of a new offering from DKM, the DKM
Tallon Super Tourer. This Firebird could be ordered with a turbo-charged 400 or a
normally aspirated 350 Chevy. The Tallon received fiberglass fenders, hood, rear
quarters and bolt-on air dam. American Specialty wheels with 50 series tires were
installed. Hooker headers, a 5-speed Doug Nash tranny, Koni shocks and the WS6
package were also added. At significant additional cost ($7600) a Traco-built Chevy
350 rated at 460bhp could be installed.
DKMs efforts continued through the '80s with the MR MSE TAs (Mecham Racing Motor
Sports Edition) which were produced from 1982 to 1986. In 1997 Dennis was approached
by a Macho fan and owner about producing a new Mecham TA. After some initial
discussions the decision was made to produce a few cars and that effort continued
throughout the 2002 model year. A Mecham T/A and a Mecham Formula were both offered.
You can visit his site at
www.mechamperformance.com
Original Vintage 1978 Macho Trans Am Brochure
from DKM courtesy Loren Garrigus
Original Vintage 1979 Macho Trans Am Brochure
from DKM courtesy Loren Garrigus
.. ..
Original Vintage 1978 Trans Am Brochure
from DKM courtesy Loren Garrigus
Original Vintage 1983 MSE Trans Am Brochure from DKM
DKM Patch
courtesy Manny Salierno
DKM Sales Emblem
courtesy Manny Salierno
DKM jacket given to new Macho owners
Photo courtesy Loren Garrigus
Vintage photo of new Macho TAs at Mecham Pontiac
Photo courtesy Loren Garrigus
DKM Letter to new Owners
"Owner Information and Maintenance Tips"
courtesy Randy Samuel
DKM T/As known or believed to no longer exist:
1978 Macho Trans Am #10 1983 MR MSE Trans Am #84
1978 Macho Trans Am #97
(still exists but has been completely converted to something else -- see Lot#2)
1983 MR MSE Trans Am #148
1978 Macho Trans Am #137 1985 MR MSE Trans Am #20
1983 MR MSE Trans Am #63 1985 MR MSE Trans Am #26
Lot#1
1977 Macho Trans Am #5 of 26
owner: Dennis Rosenthal
Though its extremely rough, its a rare find and I'm glad to have this one on the
site, the first '77 Macho TA (on this site). Add to that this is the actual 5th car
that Kyle and Dennis modified and that makes it an even more interesting Trans Am. In
'77 26 cars were converted. Only 3 are known to still exist. #5, #12, #17. The car
was recently sold and the new owner writes:
"Jimmy, Macho # 5 was finally delivered. Attached are a few pics of it just
after I finished cleaning it up. I have gotten the car running and have driven it
around the yard. This Car still very original and retains most all its orig paint
(worn out), still has its orig engine, the wheels are correct and orig for the car,
and it has absolutely no rust. I have the orig title from Mecham Pontiac, PHS docs,
and was lucky to find the buildsheet still behind the rear seat. I have spoken with
Dennis Mecham and am waiting for paperwork from him."
Thanks!
Dennis Rosenthal
This car has the following options:
Revised suspension: springs, shocks, sway bars
Special paint with stripes and numbers paint on the fender and rear spoiler.
Custom alloy rims
Pontiac 400 engine (numbers are matching)
4 speed manual trans
A/C
power steering/brakes
tilt steering wheel.
Dennis recently provided me with a few pics of the interior. He also sent the last
pic which is a mini-macho gathering feature '77 #5, '78 #114, and '78 #171 all
together at a local car show.
Dennis also owns the following Macho TAs:
1979 Macho Trans Am #22 in Macho TAs Lot#5.
1977 Macho Trans Am #12 of 26
owner: unknown
The second '77 on the site I originally had it listed as a '78 until I received this
e-mail from Cameron Holeman:
"This car was advertised in AZ as a '77. A friend of mine looked at the car and
determined that it was a real '77 but had been wrecked and rebuilt and that it had
the wrong wheels. All 77's had some type of aftermarket wheels due to the fact that
the factory wheels that year were only 15x7. It has a 455 with a 4-speed. It was for
sale in Auto Trader a year ago or so. It was in AZ and went to Texas."
Cameron Holeman
This is a really small picture and its hard to tell much about this one but it
appears to be a white color with red accents. Its also appears to have Turbo rims
installed. These were probably a later addition and were not part of the original
Macho package. Interior color is hard to tell but I'm betting its red as well. If
anyone has any information on this drop me a note at
webmaster1@firebirdgallery.com
(remove the "1" before sending).
A site visitor, Phil Brown, turned out to be a previous owner of this car, during
high school, and sent me the following:
"Both my girls! (1984 Sedona, AZ - Reference the second photo in the set sent in
by Phil). Oh my god, my heart stopped when I found my car on your website. My name is
Phil Brown and I know the history of #12. It has a ton of history, if you know what I
mean. We go way back to 1980, when I rode in it to junior high school with my dad.
Three years later I bought it from a guy named Randy Miller in Phoenix. The car had
45,000 original miles at the time. I got it for $4,500.00. That was a lot of money
for a high school kid. The car was fast and original and I kept it that way always
for 10 years. I drove the car through high school and never put a scratch on it,
never changed a thing and the whole town of Flagstaff, AZ knew the bad boy macho. Its
taken many a pink slip."
If anyone knows where this TA may be located please let me know, especially if its
for sale. Mr. Brown has expressed a big interest in purchasing back his old car.
Please contact me at the e-mail address above.
1977 Macho Trans Am #17 of 26
owner: unknown
With the addition of #17 we now have four '77 Machos featured on the site. This
particular one was up for sale recently but I do not if it was sold and/or what's
being done with the car currently. I actually contacted the seller and exchanged a
few e-mails with him but we could not come to agreement on a selling price. If I
recall the car no longer had any of the original drivetrain and the seller still
wanted a pretty stiff figure for the car but, to be fair, I don't want to post
details from a fuzzy memory. As I recall the owner at the time had taken the car off
the road to transform the car into a G-Machine i.e. he had planned extensive upgrades
to the suspension, brakes etc... I think he may have even already performed some of
the work to implement some of the upgrades and then lost interest in the project.
Hopefully someone picked it up and is working on it. If anyone has any information on
this drop me a note at
webmaster1@firebirdgallery.com (remove the "1" before
sending).
1977 Macho Trans Am #21 of 26
owner: unknown
This ones in sad shape and needs a complete restoration but its very rare and would
be worth the time and effort. It was for sale but I don't know if it found a new
home. Mark sent me the following:
"Hi, I thought I'd drop you a line. I think your site is tremendous. I used to
own a 77 Macho TA #21, sold it to a friend of mine, and now he's thinking about
selling it, and wants me to try and find a home of it. It's pretty much all original
yet, it's a 400, 4speed, 77,000 mi, no T-top car, white with red. It came up here to
Wisconsin from Chicago 20 some years ago, and it needs to be restored. Lots of
surface rust, but still runs and drives good. I'll get some pics in a couple of weeks
after it comes out of storage. So I guess there is at least four 77's left.
Hi Jimmy, here are the pics. The Concord stereo is the original one installed by DKM.
He has a new set of Macho decals from DKM minus the rear spoiler decal which was
unavailable at the time. We had to send a copy of the title to authenticate ownership
to get them, and received a letter back from Dennis Mecham confirming the vin, decals
and letter will be included with the car. It's had new brakes front and rear, new
calipers, rotors, drums, wheel bearings and seals front and rear, front brake hoses,
emergency brake cables, exhaust from the original hooker headers back, shocks, and
tires. The snowflake wheels are not original, the car came from DKM with I believe
Appliance chrome steel wheels, they were pretty rusty, I think he has one of them
left. It starts, runs and drives good, 77k is original miles. The body is pretty
rough.
For the last twenty some years it has not been driven in the winter, but don't know
about the first few. It needs a windshield, rear quarters and inner panels, and rear
lower panel behind fuel tank. The rear sub frame where the leaf spring shackle mounts
on the drivers side is rusted out, and there are rust holes in the outer corners of
the dash panel. The original front sway bar was removed to replace the bushings and
links, hasn't been installed yet, but is included.
Thanks a lot for your help,
Mark
1978 Macho Trans Am #11 of 204
owner: Dave Burrows
This Macho TA recently changed hands and Dave sent us some new info and pics. Dave
writes:
"Hello there, my name is Dave Burrows. I recently purchased this car from Rick
Osborn. The previous pictures of this car did not do it justice so I am sending some
better ones. The car is a W72 4 speed car with just 80,000 miles on it. It is in
unmolested original condition and is almost flawless. It has about 80% of its
original paint and shines like new. The interior is almost perfect. This might be the
earliest '78 MACHO left. (if that matters) The site is great with lots of great
info."
Thanks! Dave
1978 Macho Trans Am #16 of 204
owner: unk
A site contributor recently sent me these pics of #16. Hopefully the current owner
will contact me. This one comes equipped with the 400ci engine and M-21 4-speed with
Hurst shifter, WS6 suspension package, 4 wheel disc brakes, open and functional
shaker scoop, re-jetted carb, posi-traction 10-bolt rear, one piece removable fiber-
glass hood, and a roll bar that's color matched to the interior. That's an option I
haven't seen on many of the Macho TAs. Quite a few came with roll bars but this is
the first one I've seen where it was color matched to the interior. This TA still
wears its original paint. The interior is all original and it even has the original
space saver spare located in the trunk, that has never been used. The engine is the
numbers matching engine that came with the car and was reportedly rebuilt recently.
1978 Macho Trans Am #27 of 204
owner: withheld
The owner of this amazing Macho TA recently contacted me and provided these fantastic
pictures. He writes:
"Here is another car for your web site. #27 has of course the W72 & WS6 options
that all '78 Macho's started out with. It also came with the 4-speed transmission and
it has all of the standard modifications that were part of the Macho T/A package. On
top of the basic DKM modifications, this car is equipped with some of the more rare
DKM options:
Fiberglass lift off hood
Hooker chrome roll bar
Concord stereo system
These cars are very rare as most people know. I was fortunate to have several people
that lived around me that had these cars when they were new. They are a great
addition to your site! I can be reached at
bcdetailing76@aol.com for comment."
1978 Macho Trans Am #28 of 204
owner: withheld
This Macho has a host of modifications from the DKM brothers including a functional
shaker scoop, re-curved distributor, re-jetted 4bbl carb, Koni shocks, Hooker headers
and dual cats with Flowmasters (not part of the original DKM package). It also has
the WS6 package, TH350 tranny with a shift kit and a Hurst dual gate shifter. Out
back; the rear is a 10 bolt unit at 2.56:1. Wheels are the original 15x8 snowflake
wheels with 235/60 front rubber and 275/60 rear rubber. Originally the car came with
AC but it had been removed. Additional features include power windows, steering and
brakes, tilt wheel, and a non-original Pioneer detachable face CD player. The new
owner recently contact me. Mike writes:
"I purchased the Macho #28 from my son who was trying to sell it after owning it
for about three years. I gave him my 1973 Trans Am a few years ago and tried to get
it back with no luck. I decided this was a suitable alternative. She needs a lot of
work as you can tell from the pictures you have. I have ordered a complete new
interior and have started on the mechanics. Already replaced the windshield and had
the rear end rebuilt. Then the suspension and an engine overhaul with some little
extras added, after that its off to the paint shop for that special Macho paint. We
do have the exhaust system replaced to DKM specs. Sounds good. Still collecting
parts. Discovered somebody switched engines awhile back so we do not have the
original one. The one that is in it, is a real TA engine from the same year. I was
told by owner #2 that the engine that he had was beefed up and this was not it. Well
looks like we might as well stuff that pounched out 455 in her and make a mean ride.I
will send some updated photos when she gets her face lift."
1978 Macho Trans Am #32 of 204
owner: unknown
The pics are terrible quality but this Macho was up for sale recently and hopefully
has found a new home. Nothing else is known about this car at this time...
Pics courtesy of Heath Elmer
1978 Macho Trans Am #37 of 204
owner: Tim Kaple
This Macho TA comes dressed in a cool looking silver and blue paint scheme. Its
equipped with a 400c.i. engine, auto transmission, dual exhaust with dual catalytic
converters and no mufflers, cruise control, A/C, an Alpine stereo, and posi-trac rear
end. The unique bird has only seen 43,000 miles of use and is an excellent example of
the DKM program.