History behind the Macho T/A’s

Dennis and Kyle Mecham worked together at the family dealership, Mecham Pontiac in Arizona, and upon taking delivery of the new 1977 Pontiac Firebirds, they were disappointed to see discontinuation of the 7.5L 455 V8’s and the lacklustre performance of the once impressive Pontiac 400. The two brothers had begun by experimenting with dropping a 455 Pontiac into a then-new 1977 Trans Am in their garage at home. They found that people were very impressed with the then new 1977 design that also had significantly more power under the hood. DKM quickly realized there was still demmand from plenty of customers for a brand new car that was still offering significant performance in this climate of high insurance costs and emissions test.

Dennis and Kyle took advantage of the untapped potential of the mild-mannered optional W72 6.6 litre 400 Pontiac V8 by experimenting with carburetor re-jetting, distributor advancement, opening the hood scoops and adding headers backed up by true dual exhausts. These modifications drastically woke up the 400’s, and the two brothers found that there was no shortage of demmand for hot street performance hadn’t been quenched by the oil crisis and lack of support from domestic manufacturers. With Macho being the popular lingo at the time, they settled on the name “Macho T/A”. With the addition of special decals and emboldened numbering, and these cars became beacons of performance for the late 70’s.

Initially in 1977, they had produced 26 Macho T/A’s to test the waters, and found they disappeared off the showroom floor as quickly as they could make them. The 1977 model Machos were relatively limited with not many performance upgrades on offer from Pontiac aside from the W72 Performance Package that included a better tuned 400 Pontiac and taller 3.23 rear gears in a Series III 10-bolt differential. The wheels were still limited to 15x7” from the factory offerings, so DKM would offer aftermarket larger diameter aluminium wheels or widened steel Rally II Pontiac wheels. While the Machos were still numbered for this year, they did not include numbered DKM plaques on the console until the next model year. The 400 W72 in 1977 was still limited to the weaker cast 500557 engine block, and only had a mildly improved factory camshaft and exhaust for this year.

Shortly after, Pontiac begun to sneakily re-introduce under-the-radar factory performance modifications, with the WS6 Special Handling Package and re-tuned higher performance W72 400 making the 1978 Trans Am completely overshadow the 1977 model in every regard. The Mecham Brothers were quick to order hundreds of these WS6/W72 T/A’s, and made the Macho T/A’s into an immediately more effective package, with the top-of-the-line Koni Adjustable shocks, Hooker Headers, Hooker roll bars, and Concord/Rockford stereo upgrades. To circumnavigate the stringent emissions requirements of new vehicles for the late 70’s, DKM sold these Macho T/A’s as used cars fresh off the lot. This was because used vehicles at the time did not require the same emissions scrutineering as factory new cars. Dealerships in the surrounding states had begun ordering dozens of Macho T/A’s to stock their showroom floors, with Stephen Wade Pontiac & Laurie Miller Pontiac in Salt Lake City having brand new 1978 Macho T/A’s on display for their customers.

After the first 100 1978 Macho T/A’s, production began to drastically escalate, with customers wanting even more performance and customization. H.O. Specialities had devised their own turbocharging kit they provided via mail order, and the Mecham Brothers saw this as a suitable measure to even further upgrade their T/A’s. Mid-way through the 1978 model year Machos, DKM began offering Turbo equipped Macho T/A’s, with H.O Specialities even ordering their own Macho Turbo T/A company car! The sky was the limit, with customers ordering upgrades such as oil pressure restorers, Doug Nash 4+1 heavy duty race transmissions, VSE equipment, fibreglass body panels, even Race Only models such as the E-Type (Export Only) Machos.

Later through the development of the second generation, the brothers would see the declination of the Pontiac 400, the supply of W72 400’s running dry for their zone allotment, and the tightening of EPA regulations. Nevertheless, they still completed special modifications on Firebirds delivered from the factory with the Oldsmobile sourced L80 403cu 6.6 Litre V8 and the Pontiac 301cu 4.9 liter turbocharged motors in 1980. By 1979, a few more dealers even further out had begun ordering more Machos in to stock their showrooms, such as Bob Benson Pontiac in Petaluma, California and Rosenthal Pontiac in Virginia. However, late into 1979, the orders for the larger displacement engines were rapidly being rejected. It wasn’t long after until Pontiac was effectively forced to no longer offer any more 6.6L engines, and the new highest performance engine available became the LU8 Pontiac 301 Turbo 4.9L V8. While DKM still completed a few more Macho Turbo T/A’s, the higher overall cost per car with the factory Turbo driveline, and the 301T being “a hand grenade” when attempting to modify and tune, this was the end of the second generation Macho T/A’s.

While initially, DKM stopped making the Macho T/A’s in 1980, they migrated to the new 3rd Generation Firebird platform and began creating the 1982-84 MSE (MotorSports Edition) T/A’s and opened up a second dealership at 8200 Sprague Avenue South, in Tacoma, Washington. Eventually, in 1985, they began making a small amount of 3rd Gen Macho T/A’s as well as a few models briefly for the 4th Generation under their new platform, Mecham Design and Performance.