Mecham Pontiac, and the Macho T/A of the 1980s


I remember the name Mecham. But to me, it was a Pontiac dealership. And it was the Macho T/A, which was a Pontiac Trans-Am that had been modified by the Mecham dealership. I saw them around Phoenix before I left for Los Angeles in 1982, and sometimes I would see them in California, too. They had a badge on the back that said MP, for Mecham Pontiac, and graphics along the side that said Macho T/A. And since I missed Arizona, whenever I saw one, it reminded me of home.

Ev Mecham in the 1980s

And then I moved back to Phoenix, in 1989, and suddenly Mecham wasn't about a car dealership anymore, or the Macho T/A. If you lived through the Ev Mecham era, you know the story. It was a mess. And no, I'm not going to talk about it here, you can Google it and find a LOT of stuff. In fact, just about everyone that you mention the name Mecham to will probably have a lot to say about that political mess. But I never hear anyone talking about the Macho T/A.

To me, it was the Macho T/A. They were way cool, and very fast. If you remember the Macho T/A, you know what I mean, and if you owned one, I'm jealous.

1979 article about the DKM Macho T/A Turbo

Macho T/As in the Mecham lot in 1978, Glendale, Arizona.
If you liked this article, and would like to see more in the future, along with a LOT of cool old photos of Phoenix, please consider becoming a patron of History Adventuring on Patreon. If you're already a patron, thank you! Your pledge makes this happen!

 Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 30, 2020 at 8:25 AM

    I own a 86z28 that came from glinedale with the bells and whistle would like to know more about it

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJuly 1, 2020 at 2:41 PM

    I have a macho TA#203 I would like to restore I need some help

    ReplyDelete
  3. Old bird manOctober 6, 2020 at 3:54 PM

    I have an 1982 MR MSE Pontiac Trans Am #0144 and I'm trying to restore it with the MSE package any help greatly appreciated

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the
Read more