R.I.P. Darrel "Big D" Mcnulty

[kafercup]

I just got word that Darrel passed away today in Las Vegas.  He was a great guy and was always there to help anyone that needed it.  Rest in peace Big D.   

[Jim Ratto]

I don't know what to say, but how sad I am for all involved. I know Darrell was having a rough go of it over the last 3 years. The pain is over now, my friend.
That picture is the essence of Darrell, it was taken when we took my car to Carlsbad almost 11 years ago. Without Darrell, so many of us kids never would have gone fast.
Rest in peace

Jim

[Rennsurfer]

Sad news... rest in peace, Darrel.

[stealth67vw]

Damn! I don't know what to say. Rest in peace Big D. 

[larry mck]

He was one of the good guys. Always there to lend a hand. RIP

[Tony Wilkie]

Man, I don't know what to say...
Rest In Peace My Friend 

Tony

[Cornpanzer]

Im really sorry to hear that.  I met Darrel at Carlsbad that day (has it really been 11 years) and maybe once or twice since.  Seemed like a great guy.   

[Tony M]

I am very sad about this news, Darrel was one of those kind of guys that only come around once in a life time. I wish i was shocked, but we know it was only a matter of time. The suffering is over for you. Darrel keep an eye on us here, and help us if and when we jack something up.
 Your going to be missed by a lot of freinds. R.I.P. buddy.

 Tony
 

[javabug]

Sorry to hear about this.  Sympathies to friends and family. 

[Jim Ratto]

I wanted to share some of my favorite memories of "Ol' Safety Shoe McNulty"

I met Darrell over the counter @ Buggy House in 1991, he stopped in to talk to "the kid that had the 48IDA motor in the blue Bug", and we hit it off from the get go. Darrell was just one of those guys you could talk to and he'd listen before spitting out some opinion. If he didn't know, he'd tell you, and he'd help you find the answer to your question (not just VW stuff either). Anyway come mid 1990's he, myself and our friend SODA (Bryan W) started gutting Darrell's green "Hawaiian Style" 1966 street/strip car into a scrappy little drag car. It was just all about fun, there was no seriousness to any of it. We literally scraped (I think Darrell coined the term "sweep the floor" for our generation) up parts that were collecting spiders in our repsective garages and built a 1776 with compression and Engle 120 and JSC rockers. Real low dollar to hp ratio here... anyway, like I said it was about doing stuff together and having fun. We'd spend a Saturday working on the car and then go do wheelstands in Darrell's court later that night, then go out for oversized cheeseburgers @ Bob's around the corner. The Dale hardware runs. Or the terrifying rides in his boss' convertible with Berg 2213/IDA's/FK87 and 5 spd. That car scared the life out of me, especially with Darrell @ the wheel. The green '66 eventually made it to Sac a few times, with the 1776 went 13.03, then we found we had enough junk to make a 1914 with FK10 and some heads Bryan scammed a college kid out of .Car then went 12.80's but only after 3 or four trannys in one night of practice @ Sac. What a night that was. Miss the ribs Darrell used to BBQ too. Miss his temper. Miss hanging with his dad out on the woodworking shed, making pushrods or testing valve spring travel in the old drill press. All the road trips to Heads Up to see Roger. The night we got stupid wasted @ the Mexican place on Orangethorpe. The night Ruble got hammered with us and keeled into the urinal @ Knott's. The time we traveled with Tony Wilkie to Carlsbad... one of my best memories ever in my life... so many good friends, just doing it for the sake of fun. Things were simple, we were young and parts were everywhere. I mean it, most of us Bay Area kids would have lost interest in the hot rod VW thing without Darrell. He made it fun.
One of Darrell's best remembered quotes
"I don't want to see that f-ing linkage lift when you shift, Bryan" (when Bryan was piloting '66)

I want to add, a lot of us had "Darrell nicknames"... Preston was "Sweet Pea", his cousin Damon was "Victor", Dan Ruble was "Mr Magoo", Bryan was "tranny killer", I was "Cam Doctor", one of the guys @ BH was "Pocket Boy"...

[Rick Meredith]

Great stories Jim.

Never had the pleasure of meeting Darrel but he sounds like a heck of a guy. My condolences to his family and friends.

[stealth67vw]

I too met Darrel in 1991 but it was at Hawaiian Country V-Dubs in Newark around the corner from his house. He was driving the 66 with an 1835/W125/48 IDA engine and it hauled ass like everything he touched. Sadly my last recollection of Darrel was him flying past Buggy House in the Versgrove vert at 9,000 rpm in 3rd gear with the front tires barely touching the ground and his head barely sticking up past the tops of the doors. I could just picture his flip flops mashing the gas pedal as hard as he could.

[Jim Ratto]

and it hauled ass like everything he touched.

Funny story Darrell told me about when he lived and street raced in Hawaii. Aside from Volkswagens, Darrell was into drag racing To#¤ta Corollas. He told me about early on in his street racing days, he ran around a Corolla with a 3TC or one of the other smaller pushrod 4 cyl, with the usual mods. I guess at the airport a guy could rent Corollas that had the 8Rc or whatever the bigger badder motors were. So him and his crew figured out they could rent the big motored Corolla for a few hour, pull the big motor out of it, and swap it into his own Corolla and voila... faster car for $39. We used to talk about all the old school Japanese hot rod motors, the Wankel, 3TC and mostly the To#¤ta "Tiger" motor, which was Japan only DOHC for Corolla and was a little monster. Darrell was lucky enough to have one for a while in the white Corolla in the picture hung on his garage wall pulling front wheels.
The day he came out to my place in 1998 to help me stuff my 2276 in my car, he drove out in his black Corolla... think it was a 3TC with 320 degree cam and some custom manifold that supported a Holley 4bbl. Cold blooded, cantakerous, lopey, loud but fast as all hell once it came up on cam. Somehow you could stick Darrell behind the wheel of a forklift and it would run 11's.

[ugly duckling]

never met BIG D. my deepest condolences.   UD  .

[stealth67vw]

Remember our trip to the Classic in 1999. I think our average speed was 100+ mph with your car on the trailer and me flat towing Wenzel's car with my Exploder. Fun times.

[Simpsonshoe]

I wanted to share some of my favorite memories of "Ol' Safety Shoe McNulty"

 Miss the ribs Darrell used to BBQ too. Miss his temper. Miss hanging with his dad out on the woodworking shed, making pushrods or testing valve spring travel in the old drill press. All the road trips to Heads Up to see Roger. The night we got stupid wasted @ the Mexican place on Orangethorpe. The night Ruble got hammered with us and keeled into the urinal @ Knott's. ...so many good friends, just doing it for the sake of fun.  Bay Area kids would have lost interest in the hot rod VW thing without Darrell. He made it fun.
One of Darrell's best remembered quotes
"I don't want to see that f-ing linkage lift when you shift, Bryan" (when Bryan was piloting '66)

I want to add, a lot of us had "Darrell nicknames"... Preston was "Sweet Pea", his cousin Damon was "Victor", Dan Ruble was "Mr Magoo", Bryan was "tranny killer", I was "Cam Doctor", one of the guys @ BH was "Pocket Boy"...

Leave it to James"Jimmy the Rat" Ratto.. to recacll the finer moments of that southland trip... One of the things i still am amzaed by was his enthusiasim for helping people.. I showed up at his place one time in a fresh beater Dodge pickup.. He looked at it for twenty seconds and stated "this bitch needs new motor mounts,pull it over by the shop" Perhaps an
 an hour later the truck was jacked up the old mounts removed, two other issues remedied, and I was staring at a set of new motor mounts that he was installing..And then the " Magoo, you owe me a soda" I can Still hear " Spank that Bitch" like it was yesterday.. God speed , Big D.

[.]

Race In Peace Darrel
 

[Damon]

McNutty was the best.  Attached are a few pictures I had, one the day he left Hawaii for NorCal (standing next to his brother Joe, and a couple of the white To#¤ta Corolla in Hawaii. Note building an installing an engine with his Safeway uniform on, they always wondered how his uniforms would be worn out so fast. He was very generous to help out and did so with me many times over numerous different cars, To#¤tas, VW's, and sometimes a few Chevrolets.  I know he missed he father dearly and now they can yell at each other again  .  Enjoy the pics, its great reading all the NorCal stories.

Cousin Damon
McNulty nic name "Pee Ass"

[Damon]

This was the last car we built, Manx Buggy, Roger Crawford 2276 engine, Berg 5 Speed.

[ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ] [ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ] [ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ] [ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[Jim Ratto]

hey Damon thanks for posting all the old pics of Darrell and his projects. Those days with the buggy were golden, Darrell and I learned a helluvalot.

reminds me of my first nickname Darrell gave me.... "Ball Peen"

[Jim Ratto]

I wanted to share some of my favorite memories of "Ol' Safety Shoe McNulty"

 Miss the ribs Darrell used to BBQ too. Miss his temper. Miss hanging with his dad out on the woodworking shed, making pushrods or testing valve spring travel in the old drill press. All the road trips to Heads Up to see Roger. The night we got stupid wasted @ the Mexican place on Orangethorpe. The night Ruble got hammered with us and keeled into the urinal @ Knott's. ...so many good friends, just doing it for the sake of fun.  Bay Area kids would have lost interest in the hot rod VW thing without Darrell. He made it fun.
One of Darrell's best remembered quotes
"I don't want to see that f-ing linkage lift when you shift, Bryan" (when Bryan was piloting '66)

I want to add, a lot of us had "Darrell nicknames"... Preston was "Sweet Pea", his cousin Damon was "Victor", Dan Ruble was "Mr Magoo", Bryan was "tranny killer", I was "Cam Doctor", one of the guys @ BH was "Pocket Boy"...

Leave it to James"Jimmy the Rat" Ratto.. to recacll the finer moments of that southland trip... One of the things i still am amzaed by was his enthusiasim for helping people.. I showed up at his place one time in a fresh beater Dodge pickup.. He looked at it for twenty seconds and stated "this bitch needs new motor mounts,pull it over by the shop" Perhaps an
 an hour later the truck was jacked up the old mounts removed, two other issues remedied, and I was staring at a set of new motor mounts that he was installing..And then the " Magoo, you owe me a soda" I can Still hear " Spank that Bitch" like it was yesterday.. God speed , Big D.

Dan I'm sure you remember, vividly, the afternoon we made your 1776 "come to life" with the 86B Web Cam and 48's. I remember snickering every time you'd express concern that we had gone a little too extreme and Darrell would just bark at you "oh stop your whining you little bitch" And then those first few test passes in the court. Darrell made you a believer too.
I remember Darrell telling me about some ancient Hawaiian secret legend about pouring black peppr in a radiator of a car that had a coolant leak and somehow it would cure itself. That's the kind of guy he was.