The hula hoop on your face
11/29/2022
New technology poses a major challenge not only for engineers, but also for journalists - less of a constructive nature and much more of a descriptive nature. After all, how do you describe the workings of a new achievement of human ingenuity to the still unsuspecting reader so that they are entertained and hopefully a little less clueless afterwards? Creativity is required. Occasionally, this results in cultivated nonsense such as the assertion that the rotor in a rotary piston motor "wobbles" - which gave it and its inventor its name.
Sometimes, on the other hand, the simple explanation of a complicated issue is so aptly illustrated that it is understandable on first reading - and also triggers a very bizarre mental picture. For example, auto motor und sport described the eccentric rotary motion of the G-Lader at its debut in the Polo GT G40as that of a hula hoop dancing in the charger housing. Four years later, at the start of series production of the updated Polo G40 , they decided on a paraphrase in Stuttgart that would mean something to even the most unathletic of contemporaries: "It's the same movement that the washcloth performs on all our faces early in the morning."
Fortunately, unlike the turbocharger, twin turbocharging never became established in the G-Lader. That would have been complicated in terms of the engine. Who has ever washed their face with a hula hoop?
