Anyway, my father and I had just fixed it up when my teacher asked me if I would like to go to a math tournament about 100 miles from Atlanta. I figured it would look good on my college application, so I decided I might as well go. Since I'd never driven my Dart 100 miles at one time, I also saw this as a great opportunity for a road test.
My teacher and a fellow student didn't share my confidence in the 30-year-old Slant Six. For some reason, students were allowed to give rides to other students to school events, but teachers weren't. So they had to get in the Dart for the trip to Macon. They didn't seem to share my confidence in Chrysler engineering, and my attempts to demonstrate that the car's solidity by attempting to find its top speed were met with raw terror. I had to back off on the throttle at only 80 mph. In retrospect, it's just as well that what happened next didn't happen at such excessive speed. We were going only 70 mph in the leftmost lane when it happened.
Suddenly, we heard a sound like a gunshot from the front end. My passengers, neither of whom were mechanically inclined, were terrified at the thought that something had happened to the engine. I was almost equally scared, because I knew that the left front tire had just blown out.
To this day, I'm still surprised that the car didn't swerve out of control and slam into the concrete median. Instead, I don't even remember feeling it pull very hard. However, I have driven some vehicles with very loose steering (not the Dart, the steering's still pretty good after 90,000 miles), so I've learned to correct for steering quirks with a minimum of thought. I had no difficulty pulling on to the shoulder and bringing my Dart to a complete stop.
After a few difficulties changing the tire (I forgot that Chrysler products use reverse threaded lug nuts on the driver's side), we were again on our way. Needless to say, my passengers found different transportation home.
There is an interesting afterward to this story. Shortly after that trip, I found that the Dart had blown a head gasket. After taking off the head, my father and I discovered that whoever installed the gasket (a factory-style all metal gasket) had omitted the sealant that the factory service manual said to use. That gasket had been in there for so long that the manifold gaskets had crumbled into dust long ago. I guess I was the first driver to take it above 80 for a long time...