Space Age Polymer Bits: May 2008

I subscribe to a credit score monitoring service (MyFico) that sends me email alerts whenever my score changes. It also allows me view full credit reports with analysis.

I check my email today and notice that my credit score has dropped 56 points! So naturally I log into MyFico to see what's up and it tells me that my score may have decreased for a few new reasons, one of which is a new collection.

New collection? Wtf, I've paid my bills on time for the past 7 or 8 years. So I tell MyFico run the full report. And I bring up the info on the collection. Hmm, something doesn't seem right. I pull up an old archived report that I ran May 2007 and compare the collection reported then to the collection reported now. See the title picture of this post.

Notice anything? It's the same collection from 7 years ago, but all of a sudden the "date active" and "date reported" have changed!

Is this country's economy in so much trouble that creditors are changing historical records in order to fuck us on interest rates? What's next, completely fabricated marks on people's credit scores?

I'm just so flabbergasted that records of a collection that was closed 7 years ago, water under the bridge, can come back and magically be altered with fraudulent information to drastically effect my credit score. I am so enraged about this that all I can think of is the ending to Fight Club.

So what do I do about this? Who do I call? I feel like a tiny ant being crushed by the gears of corporate America. I mean, what if I wasn't monitoring my credit score like so many other Americans don't? This little blip would probably slip under the radar and cost me tens of thousands of dollars in the long run (say, if I got a mortgage under the lower score). I want to hire a lawyer and sue Equifax.

For those wondering, my score now is 710 which does cause me to get worse interest rates compared to when it was 766.

It was Corvette country out there this time.

I did my 4th HPDE this past weekend. It was awesome as usual. We did the 3.1 mile, 16 turn course at Motorsport Ranch.

No yellow for you!

I wasn't put in the yellow group this time, despite my last report card recommending so. It's ok though, I don't really want to be in yellow group until I have more capable tires.

No tires for you!

Ouch. I spent so much time and money getting r-compound tires and I didn't even get to use them! I bought track wheels literally months before the event, and I bought the tires about two weeks before the event, but what I didn't do was see if they fit on my car.

I spent all day Thursday and Friday before the event trying to get them to fit, but to no avail. They wouldn't clear the front calipers, so I ground the calipers down till they fit (long, painful and ugly). Once they cleared the calipers, I found they hit the A-arm at full wheel lock. Ugh! Luckily, Discount Tire took the tires back. I'm going to have to sell the wheels on the internet.

First day frustration.

I didn't really have an instructor the first day, which at first I thought would be cool, but something didn't feel right. Instead of blowing by everyone like last time, I felt like I was struggling to keep up. Nothing felt smooth, I was sliding all over the place, and I was just using my cars capabilities, instead of driving skill, to keep afloat.

For the last session of the day, they put an instructor in with me. He was admittedly not an advanced instructor and said I was doing fine.

Second day epiphany.

The next day I got paired up with an incredible instructor (Tony, I think his name is?). Within a few laps, he cleared up most of my mistakes, which were related to over aggression, going into corners too hot and thusly understeering the whole way through them, which reduces how quickly I could get back on the throttle for corner exit. I was also late and early apexing on a handful of corners.

Once Tony cleared up those issues and we were flying again, he then showed me some bad ass racing lines, and that's when the beat down ensued... ;) I had to start braking mid-corner to avoid t-boning and rearing ending the cars in front of me. My exit speed on one corner increased so much (15+ mph) that I went off the track at the next corner because I wasn't used to having to brake so much earlier and harder.

Feeling the fade.

For this event, I had some Hawk HP+ brake pad that I bought used off the internet. They are Hawk's most aggressive street pad. They weren't enough. I've gotten to the point to where I am aware of brake fade... and these faded noticeably. Tony suggested getting some Hawk HT 10 pads, which are considered racing pads, and just change them out right there at the track. Changing brake pads on a C6 is really easy, so I think I'm going to do that for next time.

Competitive?

Pre Tony in the car with me, there were some fast people/cars out on the track! I really have to be on top of my game to keep up with Jason and his modded Z06. A lady in a Porsche Cayman put the smack down on both of us though (she had r-compound tires and got bumped to the yellow group on the second day). There was a kid in a modded S2K that I caught up to, but couldn't claim an outright pass on. Then there was a spec Miata that passed both me and Jason!

The second day, I did much better. I passed both the S2k and Miata, but still had problems with Jason (duh). Didn't have a chance to try the lady in the Porsche again cuz she got moved to yellow.

Everyone else was a cakewalk. Here are some notable passes: two NSX's (these cars are massively overrated, imo), Cadillac CTS-V, Lingenfelter C6 (ooohh that felt good), normal C6, C6Z06 (ooohh, felt good too), lots of Lotus Elises, and a couple of Porsches.

I know it's not a competition, but it's fun to see how many people I can pass, and see if I can catch the people that pass me.