I was at the Year One show today, and there was a guy that had a 1986 Z28 that was an original Mecham Magnum Camaro. It was car #11. It was white with red interior and red Magnum decals along the lower doors and red Trogan Suspension decals on the fenders with SCCA decals on the sail panels. It also had a taller ( about 5'') rear spoiler with vent slots across it. The A/C was gone, but the car was in pretty good shape. I knew Mecham built MSE Trans Ams but I've never seen a Camaro. Anyone else ever seen one? Chris

 

did some digging, here is what i found after about a 5 min. search.



Why was the "Mecham Magnum" IROC-Z started?:

Back in the 1960's there was the Modified Yenko Camaro and the Shelby, the 1980's had the Mecham Racing out of Glendale, Arizona. Dennis Mecham, owner of Mecham Design, Performance, builds winning SCCA (Sports Car Club Of America) Trans-Am race cars. His company also modifies and sells F-body Cars for the street-and activity they're pursued with the Firebird Trans Am since 1977..

Mecham Racing decided to try and do the same for the IROC-Z.


What exactly is the "Mecham Magnum" IROC-Z?:

In April of 1985, Mecham Racing began offering a modified IROC-Z to the racing public (customers). Essentially this modified IROC-Z was a stock IROC-Z where they then added goodies from the extensive Mecham catalog.


What were featured in the "Mecham Magnum" IROC-Z?:

How much and what were added to the customers Mecham Magnum IROC-Z depended on the buyer's wants. However the basic Mecham Magnum IROC-Z Camaro ran a blueprinted port-injection system for optimized fuel and timing curves for the 305 V8. This increased horsepower by about 25-30, depending on year model. You could also specify a mildly warmed over 350-H.O. V8 (Street Legal) or the wilder, non-smoggable 350/350 Macho engine dressed to deliver 350 bhp. This last came with a Holley carb on an Edelbrock manifold, GM HEI distributor, and Tri-Y exhaust headers. Finally, and again for off-road use only, you could add a Chevrolet 406 V8 spitting out 400 bhp on regular fuel, a Doug Nash 5-speed, and a Dana 44 rear axle.

Suspension modifications included lowering the car an inch all around, adding Koni adjustable shocks, and increasing the spring rates slightly by adding new units. The Mecham treatment further included new swaybar pivot bushings and specific alignment settings.

On top of all that, there were 16-inch Ronal wheels and VR50 Goodyear Gatorback tires which gave even the base Magnum a skidpad number of .95g. And from there on, the sky became the limit. Trim items included the Mecham competition aero rear wing, a 4-spoke leather steering wheel, 170mph speedometer and matching tachometer, special decals and striping, Recaro seats, and special paint colors.

 

Thanks for the info. It was a pretty cool ride that I never heard of before. Chris

 

I would like to know where you obtained that information.

 

here you go

Welcome To Camarosource.ca  - Internet's Largest Most Complete

Camaro Resource Site

 

thats pretty interesting, anybody have some good pictures

 

I apologize for bringing up an old post but I ran across a '83 Mecham Camaro on Ebay.Ididn't realize Mecham offered Camaro packages along with the T/A's they did. So I did a search on here and this thread was the first one that had listed what I was looking for.The description is somewhat blurry there are only exterior pictures(I've been thinking of contacting the seller to see if they have underhood/interior/chassis shots - plus I don't have the money to bid on her anyhow).The VIN is what has me stumped - did Mecham have thier own?Anyhow here's the link if anyone wants to take a look.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=220057949504

 

Well, the guy is obviously an idiot. For one, Mecham Racing didnt have anything special in the VIN number to identify the car. If all the MR parts are gone, the car is nothing more than a regular T/A. Also, there were no 5 speed automatics in 1983, there were no special 3-speed automatics used in any MSE cars, and Crossfire Injection was not a test engine for the Vette in 83. It was already used in 1982 on the Corvette, Camaro and Trans Am. It was a fuel injection setup, not carburetors like he says in his ad. I happen to be friends with Dennis Mecham and live 3 miles from him, so I have a wealth of information. The guy selling that car is an idiot.

 

Thank you 84L69,I was thinking along those lines.His description is so blurry that you wonder if he's even talking about the car pictured.Then the VIN doesn't even look like a GM VIN.Every other special model I've seen had a second number tag in the car to show where in that run it fell.But nothing like he's showing.And the LU5 being a test motor is a laugh as i have a '83 with the LU5.I just find it interesting that there were Mecham Camaros produced along with the T/A's.Learn something new everyday.

 

anyone have any pics of a real mecham camaro I wanna see what one looks like

 

I went to Mw66Nova's source,camarosource.ca,and the only picture is of the Mecham Magnum IROC.Well at least the spoiler on the Ebay car is similar.


Edit:I ran a basic search of the VIN on Carfax and it came back 2006 Ford Freestyle.Makes you wonder even more so I sent the seller a question on the VIN and if there was any documentaion for the Camaro(curiosity taking over and maybe help prevent someone that doesn't know from buying it if it's not as advertised).

 

Notice the spelling- Camero

 

I sent them a message through Ebay about the VIN and asked if they had any documentation for the car.I got an answer,which surprised me,with the following VIN 1G1AP8776CL190125.They said they were going to change the info in the auction.I did message back that VIN is for a '82 and not a '83 Camaro.At least the eighth digit 7 indicates it's a LU5 CFI car.

And it's amazing how many people spell Camaro wrong.But then some pronounce it like there's an E in stead of an A.

 

Correction on the initial post, it's Tojan not Trojan... and that was a body/appearance package... nothing to do with suspension.

 

Well, just got the email back for Dennis at Meham and there maybe some truth to the posting. Here is the email.

I gave the listing a quick look and there may be some truth in it, I just
can't be sure without doing an archive search. The hood and rear spoiler
look OK. I don't know about any of the other claims without checking. If
you would like an archive check we charge $40.00 and will search for the
file on the car. I'm not at all sure we have a file, but we will do the
search if you wish.

DM

 

1986 Mecham Magnum IROC-Z from a local CL ad. Ad states it's #12 out of 12 built. Definitely have never seen one of these before.

 

more pics from the ad

 

more

 

Eh, the Mecham Trans Ams are better IMHO...

 

One more correction it's "Talon" and it was their suspension package.

 

The car originally posted about, number 11? It was at the f body gathering today. I got pics of it. I'm trying to buy it if the price is right. I'll be starting a thread in the history section later today