02/17/99- Have decided to order the Mecham Trans Am from Mecham Design Performance. Had my dealer, Bill Rush Pontiac order the Trans Am as above to drop ship to Biddulph Pontiac in Phoenix, Arizona. Dennis will pick the car up from there to modify.

02/20/99- Bill called today with my order number! Funny, if you do not want a WS6 car, you can get your order in no time at all! E-mailed Doug to check status of order a few days later. Mailed back with a Target Production Week of 03/15/99.

03/05/99-Dennis called with information on the new MAF and airbox he has dyno'd. Very impressed with horsepower gains from both. I am a little apprehensive of switching the MAF, but 8 rear wheel horsepower from the airbox is really good!

03/10/99- Checked with Doug again about TPW. Mailed me back, and said my TPW was pushed back to 04/26/99! Sure hope Pontiac is not out of parts or something.

03/26/99- Checked with Doug again, and got good news and bad news. TPW was pushed up to 4/19, but the constraint on the MN6 transmission hit me. Gotta keep my fingers crossed that it gets built!

04/21/99- After pacing around for a month and keeping my fingers crossed, I found out today that my Trans Am was built two days ago! Wow what a relief to know it is at least built and waiting to be shipped. Doug98TA on LS1.com is a life saver, and I owe him a big THANKS for all his help tracking my car. Will cal Dennis Mecham tomorrow and tell him the car is done, and should be to him in two to three weeks. Then I just have to wait another three or four weeks for Mecham to work their magic on it!

04/23/99- Now that I have masqueraded as my Dealer to the GM Service Center. I have my shipping number for rail shipment. Thanks to Adam Hansen for compiling this info and sending it to me! Click link to see information and instructions. AUTO TRACKING

04/29/99- I have been tracking my car from St. Therese, Quebec, to Blue Island, Illinois, where is was switched to Burlington Northern/Sante Fe. I checked this morning and the train is in Kansas City. ETA at El Mirage, Arizona is May 1. Which is the main terminal in Arizona. From there, my T/A will be trucked to Biddolph Pontiac in Phoenix. Should arrive at Biddolph before May 10th. Looks like I will have my car late in May, but since I am trailering it home to Colorado. I will probably not go to Arizona till first weekend in June to pick it up. This way Mecham can take time to all the time they need to modify my T/A. I decided to also change the color on the decals. Instead of red and silver, I thought teal over silver would be different. The winshield decal will still only be silver, which will be fine.

05/01/99- Checked the Burlington northern Site this morning, and the train was in New Mexico, supposed to be at El Mirage Arizona, 2:00pm today. Will have to check later and see if it has arrived. The rail tracking page is now active, just click on the above.

06/09/99- A little over a month and I now have my new baby home. A couple friends and I drove to Glendale Arizona to pick the car up, and trailer it home. Many thanks to Dave and Russ for going down there with me to get the car! Dave volunteered his Ford Powerstroke truck, race car trailer, and many hours of drive time, Russ also took many of the driving hours too. Thank you Dave and Russ, I owe you big time!

First impressions of the Mecham T/A: This car has such charisma, the first one I saw was Kadin's, but actually seeing mine in person, it sat there and just growled at me. You walk up to the car and are afraid to touch it for fear of it biting you. It has the presence of a huge bull in a china shop. The styling of the Mecham T/A makes it very distinctive and noticeable. Everyone that has seen the T/A loves the styling and finish. They do not realize the hood and wing are not put on at the factory, they seem such a part of the car. The T/A handles like it is on rails, everything Dennis did to the suspension very much improved what came from the factory. The shifter is nice and tight, and the paint finish is as good or better than the factory paint. The teal over silver graphics were questionable until we saw them. All opinions have been good, and I really like them! Guess that really is the only one that matters, since I am paying for it and driving it! I will post more as I get more drive time. Click the link here to see a few pictures Mecham T/A Pictures

11/06/99- Well there was some bad news about a month ago. On the way out to Arkansas City Kansas, for the Pontiac Uprising Car Show, I lost oil pressure in the motor. Fortunately it happened as I shut the car off to get gas, and I was only 260 miles from my dealer. So they sent a roll back out to get the car and I. It ruined the weekend, but it could have been worse. I just got the Mecham back yesterday from service. Was gone almost a month, and boy, I sure missed my baby! It seemed the oil pump pressure relief valve failed, and never closed due to some burrs in the bore of the pump. So my dealer checked the new one they put in to make sure it will not do the same thing. Car and motor seem fine, as I drove it 160 miles home from the dealer yesterday.

Other than this, the car has been awesome to say the least. Has 5400 miles on it now, and has been to Montana, Las Vegas, and New Mexico. Averages about 24 mpg in 6th gear at 90+ mph with the A/C on! Soon as I leave Colorado I drop the hammer, and got my first ticket in Kansas before the oil pump let go for 97 in a 70 mph zone!

11/20/99- Still not good news on the oil pump front. I got the Mecham home from the dealer fine, and oil pressure was fine. But I went out a few days later to take a spin, and sure enough, no oil pressure. This time though, it did not sounds like it was not getting oil. So I tried it a few more times, and then all of the sudden it had oil pressure. I let it idle for about 15 minutes watching the guage the whole time and it seemed OK. So I took it out for a drive. Everything was fine but at idle the guage was fluctuating from 42 psi (the normal hot idle pressure) down to 20 psi (bad!). So, needless to say, the Mecham is on it's way back to the dealer. I am hoping that Pontiac will finally authorize a new motor, cause God only knows what has been damaged internally if the pressure is jumping around.

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