Featured on this month's cover is the '98 Mecham Trans Am No. 1 owned by HPP Senior Associate Editor Christopher R. Phillip. Normally, we don't run features on our staff's Pontiacs, but we figured a mini feature in Tribal would be a good way to provide info on this special T/A without taking space from readers' feature cars.
"I met Dennis Mecham in 1996," Chris tells HPP. "He brought three prototype '97 Macho Trans Ams to the POCI Nationals in Moline, Illinois. They were the wildest Fourth-Gen Trans Ams I'd ever seen."
Ten years later, Chris found the Mecham Trans Am No. 1 offered for sale. "I knew how special the T/A was and decided to buy it. The original owner put 17,000 miles on the odometer and it was in mint condition," he says.
Mecham Trans Am No. 1 received the Mecham conversion package, which turned a stock Trans Am into a crowd-pleasing, track-taming road rocket.
The standard package included:
* Pro Dyno high-performance MTTP exhaust system
* Mecham satin 7.5-inch "Power Oval" cast-aluminum exhaust tips
* K&N Filtercharger air filter
* Mecham four-port Extractor/Ram Air hood
* High-mount Aero-tail rear wing
* Energy Suspension sway-bar bushings, front and rear
* Pro Performance springs, front and rear
* Performance front-end alignment
* B&M Ripper shifter
* High-performance gear ratio, 3.73:1
* Controls optimization
* Mecham T/A graphics in 3M vinyl with series numbers
* Magnesium-alloy commemorative dash plaque with series number
* Owner information with registration application
Mecham T/A Parts and Installation: $5,990
In addition, Mecham T/A No. 1 received:
* ROH "ZS" alloy wheels: 17x9.5-inch satin finish (set of 4) $899
* BFG G-Force KD 275/40ZR17 tires (set of four for ROH wheels)$1,224
In a recent interview with HPP, Dennis Mecham says Mecham Trans Am No. 1 is one of his favorites of the approximately 50 tuner T/A and Formulas that he converted between 1998-2002. "We did that car initially for a Pontiac store called Glendale Pontiac in Glendale, Arizona," Dennis recalls. "It was the remnants of the store that we had owned, Mecham Pontiac, where we sold the original Macho Trans Ams. We had an arrangement--I was building a few cars for Glendale Pontiac--and the first one that we did was this one. We used red and silver, which is a good combination. When you're picking a new car to show, red's pretty hard to beat."
So how long did Mecham T/A No. 1 sit on the dealer floor? "The third day it was at the dealership, a man came in wanting to buy a GMC truck. He saw Mecham T/A No. 1 in passing, and the salesman jumped into the car, drove it up to him, and let him drive it. He put a deposit down on it at lunch, and brought a check back later that afternoon for the car."
Before concluding the interview, we asked Dennis what it felt like to make a special Trans Am after last producing one, the MSE (MotorSports Edition) Trans Am, in the early '80s and how difficult was the fourth generation series of limited-edition tuner cars.
"It was fun, we enjoyed the Mecham Trans Am No. 1 immensely. We had done the first iteration [of the Mecham T/A] on the '97 Trans Am, and we did three of those [all three were still called Macho Trans Ams], and we retooled the hood and the deck for the '98 cars for a couple of reasons. The hood we designed was quite a bit better than on the '97s. It had ram air and the extractors were very functional. We also retooled the rear wing because the original wing was just too huge. It looked great on the '97 car, but it would not look good on the '98 car. Plus, it was very, very difficult to install, so we retooled a wing that looked better, bolted onto the car and supplied a good downforce design as well."
Currently with 18,000 miles on the odometer, Mecham Trans Am No. 1 is one of Chris' favorite Trans Ams of all time. "The original owner of the car was a dentist, so it's not surprising that the Mecham Trans Am always puts a great smile on my face," Chris says.