On May 5, 1990 I traded in my 4-cylinder S-10 for a black Cameo. My 1990 Cameo came with the following equipment: 4.3L V6, TH700-R4, 3.42 gears with locking differential, A/C, power steering, power brakes, digital gauges, AM ST/FM ST with cassette and equalizer, bucket seats, sport suspension, 15x7 ralley wheels, and P215/65R-15 Goodyear Eagle GT's. Total sticker was a healthy $16,000, about the same as a Camaro or Mustang but with a bigger trunk.

During the first week of ownership I had truck dropped 3/3 with coils and blocks. In the spring of '91 the quest for power led to the purchase of a 2 1/2 inch dual outlet Flowmaster muffler, a Mr. Gasket 14 inch air cleaner, and an ADS Superchip. This combo was a good wake up for the big V6 and annihilating the factory rubber was as simple as flexing the toes on your right foot.

The heavily worn rear tires were tossed in favor of P245/60R-15 Eagle GT+4 tires. The larger tires held on better both under acceleration and cornering. Lots of drag races and highway driving over the next year brought the need for new tires and the realization that a 3" drop in the front was a bit too much for real life driving. The front coils were replaced with 1" drop units and all four tires were changed to P235/60SR-15 Armstrong TruTracs.

Summer 1993 - my Cameo turns 3. For its birthday I brought the new Edelbrock Tubular Exhaust System (TES) . The installation of the kit almost deserves its own webpage (this is not an afternoon project). After the headers went on it became very clear that more rubber was needed. A trip to the tire store found some Goodyear Eagle ST's on sale. I decided to go with the biggest ST's available, P275/60R-15, for the rear tires. They measure roughly 28x11 and gave my Cameo the traction it needed to actually move instead of just leaving clouds in the air.

Another rubber change left me with Eagle ST's all around 245/60's up front and 275/60's out back. The grip provided by this combo was incredible, almost any curve can be taken atleast double the recommended speed and standing stop left turns can be done at full throttle (although counter-steer is still needed on old concrete).

After 8 years of ownership my Cameo is still an absolute blast to drive.

Fall '98 - in a quest to win the traction game a decided to change my rear tires to 295/50R15 BFGoodrich Radial T/A's. To run tires this wide I needed at least 8 inch wide rims. I starting looking for new rims but found that aftermarket steel wheels have to much offset (the tires would stick out) and alloys with custom offset are very expensive. And besides I kinda like the factory wheels. A salesman at Les Schawb Tires gave me the name of a place in Portland, OR that widens steel wheels. So I took my rear wheels to Willamette's Custom Wheel Service and had them widened to 15x8". The total bill was just over $100 including mounting and balancing the new tires.

Transmission internal upgrades complete - see 700-R4 page for details. I still have to get inside the governor to adjust the shift RPM but so far I am very pleased with the results of the B&M parts.

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