[Alvin]

[muscle_collector]

anyone knows where to get one of these name plates? one of my machos had it stolen at a car show before it bought it years ago.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by muscle_collector

anyone knows where to get one of these name plates? one of my machos had it stolen at a car show before it bought it years ago.

PM sent

[TransAm 474]

Originally Posted by Alvin

Hey! I had those paint saving mudflaps too back in the day!

No front shots of the topless DKM, instead, IIRC this was one of MECHAM's personal cars?
But, I could be wrong (again)!

Yes,you are correct....this particular car was Dennis Mecham's ,wifes personal car,and the only white/black paint scheme in 1978...it is #142,my cousin owned it for a few years while he completely restored it.My brother done all the body/paint work on that car,I even had a hand at helping sand it down and I also done all the polishing on those wheels with a rotory polisher and lots of hours. My dad built both the motor and transmission in it for him. The car was acquired by my cousin from a guy out of Oklahoma,turned out to be a beautiful car when finished. My brother also bought a 1979 Macho T/A from the same guy in Oklahoma,it was #43 Gold with Black graphics,it is also the only gold/black sheme known to exist in 1979, it was a 400/4spd. my brother sold it to another guy that owns a car lot,and it went back to Oklahoma,so the last ive heard on that car is that its setting in a showroom somewhere around Tulsa I believe. I love the life stories of these cars :-)

[TransAm 474]

Originally Posted by muscle_collector

that is actually his wifes car new. I owned it until about 10 years ago I sold it to loren in Missouri who did an outstanding job restoring it.

well...howdy Mr. Gary, I didn't realize that was you at first.. LOL This is Brian,Jamie Holt's little brother. That car did turn out beautiful!! Im not sure if you have heard or not,but unfortunately Loren is not with us anymore

Brian

[muscle_collector]

WTH !!!!! what / how / when did this happen???? I was just getting ready to make a post and say hello Jamie, and how is loren and all you guys.

[TransAm 474]

Originally Posted by muscle_collector

WTH !!!!! what / how / when did this happen???? I was just getting ready to make a post and say hello Jamie, and how is loren and all you guys.

Well Gary, he went through that divorce and everything when he was doing the restoration on the Macho,and it all hit him pretty hard, he kinda went down the drug path after all that I believe, he was in and out of jail quite often for several years, and he ended up having a massive heart attack in Taney,co jail in Branson,it happened back in March. It was quite the shock to all of us. He always said he was gonna get out and straighten up everytime he was in jail, but unfortunately he never did. I sure wish he would have,but even as much as everyone tried,nobody could help him. There at last he probably didn't weigh 170-180 lbs. and as you know, that is tiny for Loren. It sucks, Dad,Jamie and I always go up to the big Swap Meet in Springfield every year ya know at the Fairgrounds, and it just wasn't the same not seeing Loren walking around up there this year. Very,Very Unfortunate...

on a brighter note, Jamie and all of us is doing great!!

How have you been Mr. Gary?

[muscle_collector]

holy crap. that breaks my heart as you guys have been friends for a long long long time (you were just a kid when we all met). I remember when she left him, he called and we talked for a long time and that was around the same time he became diabetic. I knew then it was all coming down on him and tried to get him to get you guys and come down and hang out. he said he would and then never made it. then I couldn't ever get ahold of him and then out of the blue he called me and told me about all the pressure and did a stupid thing and got on drugs, but was cleaned up and getting life back on track. so I suggested we all get together and that never happened. then I never heard from him for a couple of years maybe and out of the blue I got a collect call from jail in taney county. as you remember my uncle was one of the original developers of branson and still owns around thirty something hotels there so I thought hmmmm family member maybe and accepted the call. it was loren. dang was I shocked. we talked for a while and he promised me he had learned his lesson and as soon as he got out he was going to make up for screwed up time in his life. I told him to call as soon as he got out and I would see if I could fix him up with some cool Pontiac. he was all for it and I never heard another word from him. so sorry to hear about it. your right things will never be the same. it didn't matter what swap meet or car show we went to I knew I would always see the three of you together. how did Jamie take it as he was very close like a brother to him.

[TransAm 474]

Jamie took it pretty bad, all of us did really, it was one of those things that was totally unexpected. One week I had heard he was in Taney county and he was doin real good, they had him doing the cooking and different activities to keep him busy, and and he was feeling good, then a week later it was all over.

[muscle_collector]

wow, you just never know. tell Jamie hello

[Alvin]

http://pontiacformula.free.fr/macho.php

[Alvin]

DKM documents from the 93-02 General Tech/Discussion thread HERE

Originally Posted by Hunter98TA

A friend found this in an attic yesterday. He thought I'd like it since I have a 98 TA.
I think it is interesting that it lists a 6.2 engine as an option as well as the 5.7.



















I thought you guys would find this interesting.

[muscle_collector]

that's cool Alvin, I was fortunate enough to be involved with dennis mecham and todd coombes on bringing these back. I decided to be different and built my #2 97 prototype car as a red one instead of white like the other two. I originally wanted to build my prototype as a stripped down no option car but Pontiac wouldn't allow me to build it without a/c, so I decided to load it up with everything offered on it. at the time we built them, the #1 car (white with blue decals) and my #2 red car were possibly the fastest new cars offered not to mention the unbelievable handling of them.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by muscle_collector

that's cool Alvin, I was fortunate enough to be involved with dennis mecham and todd coombes on bringing these back. I decided to be different and built my #2 97 prototype car as a red one instead of white like the other two. I originally wanted to build my prototype as a stripped down no option car but Pontiac wouldn't allow me to build it without a/c, so I decided to load it up with everything offered on it. at the time we built them, the #1 car (white with blue decals) and my #2 red car were possibly the fastest new cars offered not to mention the unbelievable handling of them.

Really interesting...I have one of those DKM posters on my wall w the Red 97 side profile and a top profile of a white w red hood bird that Sez:

"1997 Twentieth Anniversary Macho T/A"
"'Anything less is strictly road kill.' (Dawn Coombes, July 1997)"

[Alvin]

Bringing this back fullcircle to the OP 2nd Gen's (and later models) check this out http://www.streetlegaltv.com/history...leap-of-faith/

[Alvin]

Link to "The Mother Ship" http://www.mechamperformance.com/

[MikeNoun]

1978 Macho T/A #178 (red and white, featured a few pages back) was a car owned by a kid I went to high school with back around 1982. When he bought the car, he was embarrassed to drive it around town because of the "Macho T/A" stickers along the rockers, but he loved the red/white paint scheme and the 4-speed. All our friends seemed to have Trans Am's at the time. At our high school, there was a Brewster Green 73 Trans Am 455, a Martinique Blue 78 WS6, and an Admiralty Blue 74 400-speed.

My oldest brother had special ordered a brand new 1979 Trans Am Special Edition WS6 400 4-speed, and by 1981, he had already put in a 1969 GTO engine, removed all the emissions, ported #16 heads, radical Comp Cams 305H cam, and installed 4.10 gears. Car looked bone stock, but sounded hairy as hell through the exhaust splitters. Quite a shock to those back in 1981-1982 when they heard this thing fire up. Also, my high school teacher had a 1970 Trans Am RAIII 4-speed, Lucerne Blue (as well as a half a dozen other cool Pontiacs), and he went on to become a major contributor to POCI, HPP, etc. for a few decades.

Anyway, the high school kid that bought Macho T/A #178 asked me to come over and look at it, plus I had a set of 15x8 snowflakes that I sold him. The turbo setup for this car was stashed in the trunk. Apparently the original owner of #178 complained of detonation, so he had the turbo removed (finding premium gas back then was difficult) and had it converted to a standard 4-barrel. By 1982, he sold it to the guy I knew in high school (pictured earlier).

[muscle_collector]

Originally Posted by Alvin

Really interesting...I have one of those DKM posters on my wall w the Red 97 side profile and a top profile of a white w red hood bird that Sez:

"1997 Twentieth Anniversary Macho T/A"
"'Anything less is strictly road kill.' (Dawn Coombes, July 1997)"

yea that is my car on the poster. it has just a little over 1000 miles on it now.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by muscle_collector

yea that is my car on the poster. it has just a little over 1000 miles on it now.

Very Interesting! Any links to a digital version of that poster?

Mine is located in a poor location to photo.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

1978 Macho T/A #178 (red and white, featured a few pages back) was a car owned by a kid I went to high school with back around 1982. When he bought the car, he was embarrassed to drive it around town because of the "Macho T/A" stickers along the rockers, but he loved the red/white paint scheme and the 4-speed. All our friends seemed to have Trans Am's at the time. At our high school, there was a Brewster Green 73 Trans Am 455, a Martinique Blue 78 WS6, and an Admiralty Blue 74 400-speed.

My oldest brother had special ordered a brand new 1979 Trans Am Special Edition WS6 400 4-speed, and by 1981, he had already put in a 1969 GTO engine, removed all the emissions, ported #16 heads, radical Comp Cams 305H cam, and installed 4.10 gears. Car looked bone stock, but sounded hairy as hell through the exhaust splitters. Quite a shock to those back in 1981-1982 when they heard this thing fire up. Also, my high school teacher had a 1970 Trans Am RAIII 4-speed, Lucerne Blue (as well as a half a dozen other cool Pontiacs), and he went on to become a major contributor to POCI, HPP, etc. for a few decades.

Anyway, the high school kid that bought Macho T/A #178 asked me to come over and look at it, plus I had a set of 15x8 snowflakes that I sold him. The turbo setup for this car was stashed in the trunk. Apparently the original owner of #178 complained of detonation, so he had the turbo removed (finding premium gas back then was difficult) and had it converted to a standard 4-barrel. By 1982, he sold it to the guy I knew in high school (pictured earlier).

Cool 1978 Macho personal history, info & story Mike!