Welcome!
Welcome to the DKM Macho T/A Gallery! This website aims to comprehensively catalogue all the remaining and missing Macho T/A’s.
Welcome to the DKM Macho T/A Gallery! This website aims to comprehensively catalogue all the remaining and missing Macho T/A’s.
Things changed up a little bit in 1979, gone was the L78 400 Pontiac, and the W72 400 Pontiac was now exclusively available to manual transmission Firebirds. If you wanted an automatic 6.6 litre T/A, you had to get the L80 403 Oldsmobile 6.6L V8 with the TH350 3-speed automatic. But, the WS6 equipped cars were now coming with rear disc brakes from factory, and T/A production was at an all time high. DKM produced 96 Macho T/A’s this year, and still produced some high end Turbo models
Owner: ???
Lucky #7 was one of many Macho Turbo T/A’s in 1979. This one was first spotted back in 1999 by one of the previous owners who had seen an ad in the local trading paper for a modified, non-running 1979 Trans Am for $3,900. He called the seller and ask how soon he could come check the car out, and sure enough, he was there the same day. The seller didn’t know much about the car, and just said it was some sort of T/A modified by DKM that had graphics that said “TURBO” and “MACHO #7. The seller advised that he had parked up the car in his garage, as 7 years prior, he noticed smoke coming out of the exhaust and though the timing gear was gone. He wasn’t mechanically inclined, and had tried to fix it himself, but gave up and parked it in his barn. When this owner came to check the car out, he saw 1979 #7 parked up in the barn covered in dust, with only 16,000 miles on the clock! It was a Solar Gold/Heritage Brown Turbo W72 400 with a Doug Nash 4+1, chrome Hooker show bar, Scheel seats, and even more DKM options. He made a deal for it for $3,700, got the car home, rebuilt the turbo, re-tuned the dizzy (it was 180 degrees off!) and it fired up first try. Talk about lucky! It changed hands not long after the owner who found it in the barn got his hands on it. Hopefully we’re lucky enough to see this one again and get some updated information on it.
Owner: John L. P. Jr
John Jr. got gifted 1979 #9 from John Sr. for his 18th birthday! I don’t think too many people were getting a Macho T/A with a 400 W72 / 4-speed with 22,000 miles on the clock from their dad for their birthday back then!
Owner:
It really doesn’t get much better than this. We’ve got some great photos and stories behind 1979 #14, and it checks out, as one of the original owners was an avid photographer! Tom watched this car come off the car carrier at S&H Pontiac back in 1979 with his friend who bought the car brand new. Tom got the car not long after, and come on, how good are those photos of the car five days old on Daytona Beach for their honeymoon! Tom sold the car to a young guy years down the track, and he’s had some spotty communication with him since, it seems like that guy still has the car. The current owner apparently had the wheels painted, and put in Recaro seats. Tom reckons this one was a 403 Oldsmobile, but records show this was a 4-speed manual / 400 W72 car. This one had an excellent two-tone in and out with a Mayan Red/Cameo White exterior, with the very rare 12N/74X deluxe Oyster White/Carmine red vinyl interior.
Owner: Corey K.
Corey had stumbled across 1979 #16 by fluke when they were just looking for a Trans Am to buy back in 1998. This one was just advertised as a standard 1979 T/A, and they were pleasantly surprised to find it was a DKM Macho! It was in decent enough shape at the time, but they had still conducted a full restoration on this one, and by 2001, they had it ready for the Trans Am Nationals at Dayton, Ohio! I’ve reached out to Corey’s old details to see if he still has it, hopefully we’ll get some updated information on this one soon.
Owner: Tom McDonough
Tom had spotted 1979 #19 while browsing the internet in his hotel room while travelling to Chicago. He was familiar with the Macho T/A’s as a guy in his hometown had a 1978 Macho back in the day, and he vividly remembered seeing a brand new red 1977 T/A when he was 12 years old, so it only made sense to jump on this Mayan Red Macho when it popped up to get his first T/A 20 years later! Originally, this one was Mayan Red with a Cameo White stripe, but the previous owner, repainted the stripe to a silver color. The black and white photos are from when the car was featured in the 1980 Thunder Am magazine. At the time, it still had the original 400 W72 / 4-speed driveline with 54,800 miles on the clock. Hopefully Tom see this and shares an update on the car with us.
Owner: Bill G.
Dennis R. had rescued 1979 #22 from a junkyard back in 2007. It had been left out in the elements, and the original driveline, Scheel seats, and Turbo set up was missing. This one was fully decked from DKM back in the day, with a Doug Nash 4+1 with a short shifter assembly, 400 W72 Turbo, Scheel seats front and rear, fibreglass lift off hood, sunroof, oil-pressure restorer, the list goes on! At some point, Dennis reckons he had a bead on the original driveline from some guy in Texas, but ended up selling the car to Bill G., who commenced a total restoration on it. It’s still currently in progress now.
Owner: ???
1979 #24 had come up for sale about two decades ago in tired shape on eBay in Mesa, AZ. The guy who bought didn’t sound like he liked the car much! He thought the color combo was “nasty” and “ugly from the pics”. I think this guy is nuts, but he had told his friend Ray who lived two miles from the car to go grab it for him, and his friend sealed the deal for for $3,500. It looked to be mostly original with working A/C, a buildsheet still in the car, the numbers matching 403 Olds / TH350 3-speed automatic, but he seats had been re-trimmed. It then got shipped down to him in the Florida Keys, and has since been fully restored. It changed hands at one point, and the same guy who owned 1978 #140 had owned this one around the same time.
