Francis Tuthill, london-sydney 1977
In 1977, Francis Tuthill and friend Anthony Showell Piloted this 1971 1302S on the gruelling London to Sydney rally. The car was powered by an 1800cc engine built by Cartune. Unfortunatley, for Cartune at least, the engine was to fail at Paris. The car would eventually finish the rally in 36th place. The full story and subsequent photos are from the VW Heritage Blog, which I urge you to visit as I wont take full credit for the story. Needless to say Tuthill would go on to win the rally in a Porsche 911 in 1993.
VW Heritage Blog: https://www.vwheritage.com/blog/2013/11/05/rally-beetle-survives/#comments
Here CBW 457K can be seen looking a little worse for wear at Tuthill's premises around 14 years ago. In 1978 he also drove this car in the RAC rally. It was repainted for it's final outing in the 1984 RAC rally, which was ran for the Rainbow club charity. Apparently the car is still being stored in a barn at Tuthills workshop. I think it's about time this car got put back to it's original 1977 paint and decal scheme, but then I would say that, considering it has a Cartune decal plastered across the bonnet!
Today, Francis Tuthill owns the successful Tuthill Porsche works near Oxford. A quick look through their website would have most of us salivating at the rear engined, German exotica that they are currently working on. It seems that Francis has taken a back seat and let his son Richard take the reigns. However, it looks like Francis just can't keep himself out the humble VW and has since built himself a new rally car! Take a look for yourselves.
http://www.tuthillporsche.com/blog/tuthill-vw-beetle-africa-rallying/