How would you like to buy a Macho T/A from the foremost collector and expert in the field? Rob Thomas of Kaysville, Utah has been selling the cars from his collection over the past few years and has listed this 1979 Pontiac Macho T/A Trans Am here on Facebook Marketplace for $24,995. Rob is a super nice guy and has probably owned more Macho T/A’s over his lifetime than any other person. The Macho T/A was a performance car built by Dennis and Kyle Mecham to fill the void left after the muscle car era devolved into a sticker and decal packages. The sons of a Pontiac Dealer, Dennis and Kyle improved the performance of a 1975 Formula and then a 1976 Trans Am and showed it to their father who said “I wish I could sell a car like that to our customers!” The Mecham brothers put a modified car on the showroom floor and it sold in 3 days. DKM Design and Performance was born and went on to build 304 performance tweaked Macho T/As from 1977 to 1980.
This particular car is number 96 of 98 built in 1979. DKM built 26 Macho T/As in 1977, 204 Macho T/As in 1978 and only 6 Turbo Macho T/As in 1980. The last four cars built in 1979 were sent to Bob Benson Pontiac in Petaluma, California. All 1978-1979 Macho T/A’s were built with the WS6 handling package. This car is painted in black with red accents and has a matching Recaro interior.
There were three engine options for the Pontiac Trans Am in 1979. The Oldsmobile 403 cubic inch V8 was the standard engine and you could downsize to a Pontiac 301 cubic inch V8 for economy or option up for the Pontiac 400 cubic inch V8 engine. The Pontiac 400 cubic inch V8 engine was the powerful W72 220 horsepower motor that was stockpiled and put in less than 10,000 of the 117,000 Trans Ams built in 1979. This Macho T/A is equipped with the Oldsmobile 403 cubic inch V8 which only came with an automatic transmission.
Besides being well optioned, this car has T-Tops, fiberglass hood, trunk-mounted battery and a chrome roll bar. I remember in 1979, my family took a trip to the Grand Canyon and we begged my parents to take us to Mecham Pontiac to see the Macho T/A’s on the showroom. It made an indelible impression on my brother who recently started the Macho T/A Registry for all 1977-1980 DKM cars and personally owns several Macho T/As. The registry’s goal is to document and authenticate all of the surviving Macho T/A’s from this era. Their website should be functional by the end of the year. You better jump on this Macho T/A quickly. Most Macho T/A’s sell for $30,000 to $45,000 depending on their condition.
After looking at this I can’t get the song out of my head!
what song?????
Sammy Hagars “Trans Am” maybe?
The village people
Not my flavor~!
That is not even macho enough for Ricardo Montalbán. Not mu-ah-matcho at all.
What horrendous lack of taste. The use of color and shape is extremely juvenile. God awful….
How about the most interesting man in the world in the DosEquis beer commercials. I bet he’s macho enough.
MOOOO-A
Mach-o
Who ever said or thought Ricardo Montalban was Macho??????
MOOOO-A
Mach-o
Saturday night live did. Lol
Utube
That paint scheme ruins the car imop.
*cough* i *cough* love *cough* it *cough* *cough*… sorry i choked on how beautiful the white one is in the 2nd pic car is
Beyond ugly !
What kind of perf. on this car?..The Olds 403 was a slug?…
Its a 79…..thet were all slugs!
The Pontiac 400 and Olds 403 only had between 185 and 230hp depending on the engine.
Make that 220 hp
“The NHRA dyno’d a W72 engine at 260 to 280 net hp.“
https://www.hotrod.com/articles/is-the-1979-pontiac-firebird-formula-w72-the-last-muscle-car/
With 3.23’s it was running 14’s so that’s likely not far off the mark.
After seeing 2 of these recently here on BF, I’ve had my quota for the rest of the year.
They just aren’t that attractive.
Lots of hate here so far. On the flip side, these cars handled exceptionally well, especially for the times. DKM tightened up the suspensions and added Koni shocks, tube headers and true duals, remapped ignitions, cold air induction, etc. These mods would wake up the Olds 403 just fine, especially considering that it was a dealer offering, again – of the times.
As far as I know very much not true about Pontiac 400’s in 1979. Pontiac saved some 400 engines for the 10th anniversary edition T/A and due to popularity they ran out of Pontiac 400’s and then offered 403 Olds engines which were crap or 301 Pontiacs which were crap also. A 79 T/A especially not a 10th anniversary edition is rare with a Pontiac 400.
In 1979, Pontiac offered the 400 as an option in both the TA and the Formula until the stockpile ran out. Only the T-10 4-speed was available with the 400. If you wanted an automatic, you got the 403, or the turbo-turd 301. Some even ended up with Chevy 350s.
It appears the upper A/C hose is missing or not connected to the A/C evap unit.