Few updates to my story, if anybody is interested...
After having 4 Rial Luganos bent in the span of 8 days, I decided to do the rest of winter driving on Tesla 19" Cyclone wheels, while continuing working with Tire Rack to send damaged Rial Lugano's to the manufacturer for testing.
Ironically, while traveling home from the shop that installed my Blizzaks on Tesla 19" Cyclone wheels, after mere 2 minutes of driving, I managed to hit very substantial pothole at about 65 mph. Just to clarify, all pot holes that I have described were not the potholes filled with temporary compound resulting in uneven surface, but actual completely open pot holes big enough to at least partially drop the wheel down into the pot hole. This is admittedly subjective, but the impact was much stronger than from any of the potholes hit with Lugano's, and both the size and much higher speed (65 mph vs. 35 with Luganos) probably played the role. The impact did not bent the Tesla wheels, and I completed winter driving with this new set-up without any further incident.
Just to note on the Youlikeadajuice experience, when I was picking my 19" Cyclones at SC, I was told that cyclones are Tesla's most resilient wheels, and they see more damage with the 19" stock wheels then with the Cyclones.
I was continuing pressing Tire Rack to ensure that damaged wheels are tested by the manufacturer. I was initially told that I need to send my wheels back to TR and they will send them to Poland for testing by the manufacturer. After I've sent the damage wheels to TR, I was told that the manufacturer did not find any defects with the wheels and rejected the warranty claim. Since I was told that wheels will be tested by the manufacturer, I requested TR to see the copy of the testing results, at which point TR reimbursed me for Rial Lugano's that I bought from them. I suspect that the manufacturer did not do any testing on the wheels, and really wonder how they can determine that there are no defects without doing some testing?? By that time I was really tired of the endeavor, and just accepted the credit from the TR.
After some winter driving on both sets, I am absolutely convinced that Tesla Cyclones are much more robust that Rial Lugano's, partly because of the geometry (Luganos are 8.5" wide, while Cyclones are 8.0" wide, so the inside lip of the Cyclones cantilevered less than Lugano's), and probably because of better material. The Cyclones, however are almost 4 times more expensive. Ultimately, though, I feel safer with the Cyclones...
Unfortunately, my story with bent wheels did not end here. Amazingly, after driving decades without a single incident of bent wheels on other vehicles, I managed also to bent three 21" wheels after the crazy storms washed out temporary compound that was patching myriad of pot holes in our area. There were two incidents, one during the nighttime, when I noticed the pot hole too late to dodge it (at about 45 mph), and another during early morning commute, when I did not noticed the pot hole because of rising sun glare (about 55 mph). After first incident I noticed very slight shaking at speeds in excess of 75mph, but after second episode the shaking was present at all speeds starting from about 30 mph. The incidents also resulted in damage to the tires: sidewall bubbles were blown on three out of four tires. I took the car to the local wheel place and asked them to check all four wheels. They determined that three wheels were bend, removed tires, straightened the wheels, re-mounted and re-balanced the (new) tires/wheels.
Without a doubt the 21" are much more susceptible to the pot hole damage than the 19". So you can compare and judge for your self, I am enclosing two pictures, the first is of the bent 19" Lugano, the second is of the bent 21"Turbine wheel (key: the only way you could visibly determine that the 21" Cyclones were bent is to measure diameter at 90 degrees to each other).
