Latest news with #Dahm
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
250 years later: New Charlotte Museum of History exhibit celebrates Meck Dec day, Charlotte history
Mecklenburg County landowners gathered to sign their own declaration of independence from Great Britain 250 years ago on May 20. The Charlotte Museum of History is celebrating the 'Meck Dec' with a new exhibit. The diorama exhibit shows Uptown as it once was in 1775. Historian Nolan Dahm said where the Bank of America tower and halal cart sit today at the corner of Trade and Tryon Streets, history was made. 'They gathered together on the night of May 19, and on May 20, they allegedly signed a declaration that was the first declaration of independence in all of the American colonies,' Dahm said. Dahm is the historian behind the exhibit. He said it doesn't only celebrate Meck Dec day. It also highlights the culture that Queen City has built around it. 'Here is the 1774 rock house that was home to Hezekiah Alexander,' Dahm said. 'He was a signer of the Meck Dec, and that home is the only remaining structure that we have associated with the document. And so we decided that we are going to create an exhibit to help celebrate and commemorate for the 250th anniversary.' But there are some skeptics of the story behind Meck Dec day. The story says that Captain James Jack brought one of the two copies of the Meck Dec to the constitutional convention in Philadelphia. But the other one was in the possession of John McNitt Alexander. 'His house burned down in April of 1800, and the story goes that the Meck Dec burned with his house,' Dahm said. 'And so in September of 1800 he met with the founder of UNC Chapel Hill, William R. Davey, and dictated what he remembered from his notes and from his memories of that night.' And that is known as the Davey Copy. 'They looked at the Davey copy, they looked at all sorts of other testimony, and they decided this is what the Meck Dec, said, and they printed it in the Raleigh register,' Dahm said. 'They printed it in all sorts of other newspapers. And they eventually printed it by itself in 1826.″ One of the seven copies can be seen in the museum's exhibit. For the skeptics and non-believers of the Meck Dec day story, Dahm had one message. 'What I say is that I'm not a believer in the Meck Dec,' he said. 'And I'm also not a skeptic of the Meck Dec. What I think is really important to remember is we now call the Meck Dec has a life of its own. And I think that's the really interesting part of the story.' WATCH: Lancaster County scrambles to secure millions for Highway 521 Expansion
Motor 1
05-05-2025
- Automotive
- Motor 1
Rob Dahm's 12-Rotor Engine Made 1,515 HP. Then It Caught on Fire
The saga of the mighty 12-rotor engine continues. Rob Dahm's latest video on the monster mill focuses on more dyno tuning, and there's some good news to share. The engine is indeed a beast, posting four-figure horsepower and torque numbers with ease. Unfortunately, the big rotary set itself on fire in the process. And that's not the only setback in the project. We've been following the progress of this project for a while now. Dahm first got the engine back in 2023; it was built several years ago but in his care, the massive 15.7-liter engine gained not one, not two, but three turbochargers . That's because the rotors are set up in three banks, giving the engine something of a V-shape to it. Before Dahm got his hands on it, the 12-rotor allegedly made 1,400 horsepower and over 800 pound-feet of torque, spinning to over 10,000 rpm in the process. We can confirm it makes at least 1,515 hp and a very stout 1,281.4 lb-ft of torque. We say at least because things are still very much in the testing and troubleshooting phase, as evidenced by the engine catching fire after its power pull. Apparently, it generated so much heat that plastic and fiberglass shielding combusted. It ultimately reached 7,500 rpm–far short of its rumored limit. Surprisingly, it seems the dyno team wasn't immediately prepared for such a situation. Someone is heard asking "do we have an extinguisher or something?" Moments later, a person runs into the room and starts blowing on the engine. Finally, someone jumps in with a fire extinguisher, roughly 15 seconds after the fire started. The damage was relegated to the aforementioned shielding, and after a bit of clean-up, the engine was ready for more testing. That's where things go from bad to worse. Apparently the engine was damaged to some degree during the high-rpm pull, but not due to the fire. A keyway was damaged, causing potential timing issues, and the engine itself became severely flooded from the power run. Back at the shop, a compression test found some rotors down considerably, likely due to damaged seals. Dahm doesn't believe there's any detrimental damage to the engine, but it will need a full teardown to inspect the internals and replace seals. The original goal for this video was 2,000 horses; with a leaner setup (and obviously no fire) it could get there. But we'll have to wait for a future video to see if that goal is ultimately realized. More On The 12-Rotor Engine Listen to Rob Dahm's Mind-Melting 12-Rotor Engine on the Dyno Go Inside The World's Only 12-Rotor Engine Get the best news, reviews, columns, and more delivered straight to your inbox, daily. back Sign up For more information, read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use . Source: Rob Dahm / YouTube Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
New York Times
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Where the Fashion Elite Meet to Eat
On a recent morning, Catharine Dahm ducked into Raf's, the French-Italian bakery and restaurant on a pocket-size block of Elizabeth Street in downtown Manhattan. It was her first time there, but before the check had even arrived, she was resolved to return. 'This is going to be my regular spot while I'm here,' said Ms. Dahm, a 32-year-old fashion designer, who was in town from Paris and staying nearby. The restaurant's facade, with breads displayed in the front window, reminded her of the Old World-style cafes back home, Ms. Dahm said. At the time, she didn't realize she would be inducting herself into a contingent of regulars who hail from the worlds of fashion, design and media. Unlike its buzzy NoHo neighbors Jean's and the private members club Zero Bond, where celebrity sightings make frequent fodder for social media and Page Six readers, or the nearby Milanese import Sant Ambroeus, known to locals for its 'see and be seen' vibe, Raf's maintains a substantially lower profile. But since inheriting the space that was the longtime home to Parisi Bakery, a supplier to many of the city's top eateries, the spot has discreetly established itself as a stylish yet unpretentious refuge for fashion world fixtures to congregate on and off duty. Despite its close orbit of scene-y and in-demand restaurants — there's also Estela, which once hosted President Barack Obama; Emilio's Ballato, where tourists line up for tables nightly; and the go-big-or-go-home-hungry bravado of Torrisi — Raf's has managed to thrive as a clubroom for the fashion crowd while mostly flying under the radar of social media. Last week, the restaurant hosted a dinner party to celebrate the release of i-D magazine's inaugural issue under new ownership. Among the 35 guests joining the editor in chief, Thom Bettridge, and Karlie Kloss, whose media company has acquired the magazine, were the model Devyn Garcia, the stylist Stella Greenspan and the Luar fashion designer Raul Lopez. 'I grew up in New York,' said Mr. Bettridge, a regular since the restaurant's opening days. 'It reminds me of the feeling of some of those '90s-era restaurants where there's this kind of buzzy vibe, but it also feels like home — like Odeon or Pastis.' The luxury e-commerce retailer Net-a-Porter, Cultured magazine and the fashion label Proenza Schouler have also hosted dinner parties and events at Raf's, where waiters nimbly zigzag among the dining room's snug 11 tables. On weekdays, it has become the favored canteen for magazine tastemakers, including the Interview editor in chief Mel Ottenberg, and designers and fashion insiders with offices in nearby SoHo. 'At one point, I felt like I was there for a lunch or breakfast meeting two or three times a week,' said Isabella Isbiroglu, a director of global communications at the fashion label Khaite. The wood-fired ovens, an elemental feature of the restaurant long predating Parisi Bakery, have been around since 1935, when a young immigrant from Sicily named Angelina Bivona opened Angie's Italian & French Bakery Cafe. Angie's was never really a French bakery, though. Raf's owners, the twin sisters Nicole and Jennifer Vitagliano, explain that the curious descriptor was a way of sidestepping the anti-Italian immigrant sentiment of that time. 'She called it French-Italian to make it sound fancier,' Nicole Vitagliano said. The sisters, native New Yorkers who grew up in an Italian American household, had found a property tax photograph revealing the bakery's storefront while researching the building's history. 'That photo ended up informing our entire concept,' Nicole Vitagliano said. 'Calling it French-Italian when there was nothing French about it spoke to us.' Today Raf's front window signage has the same phrasing, while the interiors bear a European cafe-society aesthetic. It's a little Parisian, a little more Italian, with servers nattily attired in pajama-style tops. There's a pink marble bar, saffron velvet banquettes and a frescoed ceiling with a cloud-filled sky hovering over the warmly lit room. Flash photography is a no-no in the dining room. 'It's distracting,' Jennifer Vitagliano said. 'We take our guest experience very seriously, and when there's a flash, it's like suddenly everyone stops.' The consequent shortage of social media content is fine by its owners. 'We like to see people of influence in here, not influencers,' Jennifer Vitagliano said. To her, that means guests like Patti Smith and Lauren Hutton, longtime New Yorkers whom she remembers seeing at the Noho Star, a bygone neighborhood institution. The sisters, 40, who named Raf's in honor of their grandmother, and Nicole Vitagliano's daughter, also own and operate the Musket Room, a Michelin-starred restaurant one block south, and the Levantine-inspired Cafe Zaffri in the newly opened Twenty-Two hotel and private members club. While Jennifer Vitagliano has spent most of her career in food and restaurants, her twin sister previously pursued fashion, working at BlackBook magazine and as a stylist. 'A lot of our friends are still in fashion,' she said. It's a loyal crowd, she attests, albeit one with high aesthetic standards. Jennifer Vitagliano also credits a steadfast sisterhood with the restaurant's success. 'Because we're women running this restaurant, which still feels kind of unique to our industry, there's been a lot of support from female designers in particular.' Maria McManus, who says she believes supporting socially conscious female-founded businesses is 'more important than ever,' is one such designer. 'I see the dinner table as the female equivalent of the men-only golf course, and the Raf's women embody this,' she said. Maintaining a female-led business is uppermost in the sisters' vision. 'We think that should be more commonplace,' Nicole Vitagliano said. Mary Attea and Camari Mick, the chefs at Raf's, lead their other restaurants as well, and 75 percent of their managerial positions are currently held by women. How long can an establishment with a fashionable following really remain inconspicuous? Ms. Isbiroglu, from Khaite, has already noticed a shift. 'It is funny, because now when I have breakfast meetings, I'll walk in and see someone, and it's like, Oh, normally we bump into each other at Sant Ambroeus, but now we're finding ourselves here.' At the i-D party, Mr. Bettridge brushed off concern. 'It's not this runway vibe, with everyone watching when you walk in,' he said. To some extent, seeing familiar faces is an intentional aspect of the restaurant's charm. 'When you come here, you know you're going to run into people,' Jennifer Vitagliano said. She and her sister still oversee the nightly bookings to ensure a healthy balance of regulars and new faces. But she dismissed the notion of being SoHo's latest hot spot. 'We're trying to create something more timeless,' she said. 'Calling us a trendy place would be the worst thing.'
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
A Turbo Single-Rotor Miata Looks Like The Most Fun An NA Can Get
The Mazda Miata is beloved for being tiny and light, a combination of qualities most modern automakers seem to avoid like the plague. It's never been the fastest car, but who really needs that? It's more of a slow-car-fast deal, and every method of upping the power always seems to add weight in equal measure. Unless, apparently, you're rotary wizard Rob Dahm: then you can slap a turbocharged single-rotor Wankel in there, and add power while actually cutting weight. Dahm's latest project is to swap an NA Miata's four-cylinder out for a compact rotary engine. But unlike other rotary swaps, that usually use a 13b dual-rotor out of an RX-7, Dahm is using just a single rotor for his Miata. This comes with its own challenges around simply putting the engine together, but it also ends up with an engine block that weighs just 64 pounds, or less than half the shortblock weight of the engine it's replacing. Yet Dahm claims, with a properly-sized turbocharger, this build could double the Miata's factory horsepower. Read more: Subaru Had It Right All Along This video is just the first in the build series, but it's already more progress than many ambitious swaps ever make. The Miata's transmission has been cut up and welded to a rotary bellhousing, and the single rotor mill is physically inside the car's body. Surely not for the final time, as it's missing little niceties like "engine mounts," but it's in there all the same. The rest is just wiring and pipes, and that's easy, right? If Dahm is correct about the eventual power and weight of this engine, he could have a truly incredible Miata on his hands by the end of the build. It would be more powerful than any Miata built by Mazda, but still light enough to sit with the stock cars, and not so overwhelmingly powerful to entirely change the beloved driving dynamics of the NA. We'll have to keep our eyes peeled on the build to see how it pans out. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
