Piston Slap: Ponder On Proportions, Please

I have a GTI that came with 17" stock rims... I will admit it, I upgraded to 18" rims mostly because they look better. The price difference on the tires was negligable... $15 more per tire. However, you dont notice any difference in the ride. With stock rims and tires, it rode harshly. It still rides harshly, but actually feels a bit better, probably because the Hankooks I bought are just better riding tires than the stock ones were. The GTI has a pretty firm suspension, if you dont like firm suspensions you probably shouldnt be buying the GTI. They make a very nice Golf TDI that looks exactly like the GTI, still has a sport suspension but its softer than mine, and it gets almost double the gas mileage. I see your point for keeping smaller diameter rims on "normal" passenger cars, but for "sporty" cars, who cares?? The BMW 3-series looks like an old man's Buick with the base 16" rims. Even the 17s dont look proportional. The 18s are the sh-t, totally change the look of the car. Chargers with base 18s look like rental junk. With the upgraded 20s... that looks right. Camaros have the same problem. Now Camrys?? Keep the base rims, they look dorky no matter which rim is on it. As they make cars bigger and bigger, then need bigger rims to keep the right proportions. All you guys who are more concerned with how comfy it rides over potholes should stick with Buicks and enjoy the comfort...

Embracing diversity and multi-culturalism... shouldn't maximizing the coveted "street creds" be at the forefront? An inquisitive Disgruntled Old Coot huddled in his shanty surrounded by howling wind-blown snow close to blizzard-like velocities in what the local weather-guessers proclaim is the most severe winter storm since grandpappy sat out that record-setting affair way back in 1912. Locals advised to hunker down at home, stay off the roads and pray that the electrical grid remains intact. Luckily, in an area known more for ice storms that cover everything with accumulating quantities of ice thus weighing down tree branches, power lines, tops of heads of stationary people, etc. that devastates power grids the current storm, so far, is mainly ample snow driven by wind. Sub-zero ambient temperatures expected this night. Coot Critter quite grateful to not be residing within the back of the pick-up, huddled within the down sleeping bag beneath the thin-skinned camper shell. Envisioning that eventuality I believe that a van should be acquired eventually and semi-converted to an abode that would likely be more shanty-like than a pick-up. Oh. Tires? Is the past-tense of tires "tired"? Or is that merely a one-word declarative question? Other? Oh heck. I choose "C". The answer is almost always "C" unless it is "D". If the answer is "F" that is too many choices and could be a terrorist plot. There is a mouse living somewhere in the shanty walls. I saw him/her/it. Jumped from the exterior ground upwards, several inches, to where the aluminum siding that tornadoes love to rip from shanties and send swirling away at high-velocities and impact humans, cows and other critters; violently lacerating the impacted objects with often death-resulting effects. With its grasping little front paws and little mousy fingernails mouse clutched the exposed (eeeeek!) bit of wood below the siding and hauled itself up. I have not heard or seen the critter so I assume it has settled into the area warmed by the shanty interior heat source but still isolated from my realm/domain/regime. Ample glue traps to corral roaming spiders, bugs, etc. have been mouse-free for two years (brown recluse spiders homeland hereabouts so traps kinda a requirement). Hope mouse appreciates the heat but I will have to take measures to repel the critter when the spring thaw arrives. Oh... tires. Yeah. Bridgestone. The ones that are supposed to provide better-than-average wet pavement traction. With less than 6,000 miles driven yearly the tread it appears the tires may outlive me. Two sandbags in the bed, at the far rear, with two 2x4s placed port-starboard to ensure they remain at the rear, the 150 pounds assist traction when the roads are slick preventing the absolute necessity for snow tires and the associated costs of acquiring/swapping over/etc. said tires. That and being a sensical-for-conditions driver keeps my "dirty side down" and "shiny side up." Yep. Tires. Old fogeys recall "old days" when flats were so much more common than today. And the advent of radial tires and the debates appearing in car magazines, etc. back then. Anybody ever refer to Smokey Yunick or Tom McCahill anymore? Sniff. I'm old.