THE model car pictured here is a relic of a sport which once had countless devotees across the world, and which Swindon played a major part in.

Swindon Society chairman Andy Binks has shared the image of the model, which his brother-in-law bought in Cornwall.

Mr Binks has also researched the sport.

The other image shows members of the North Wilts Model Car Club, which met near a Drove Road garage on the site now occupied by the fire station.

Tethered car racing was pioneered in the 1930s by American model aircraft enthusiasts. Before the invention of reliable radio control, the petrol and alcohol machines were tethered to their operators and flew in circles, and crashes were frequent and expensive.

Some enthusiasts decided to put model aircraft engines into model cars, which were tethered to posts and ran on circular tracks.

The circumference of each track was set to an exact distance, meaning the speeds of the cars could be calculated equally accurately.

At race meetings, competitors took turns to run their cars, with the timing of each run beginning when the owner judged their car to be at its top speed.

The fastest reached over 100mph.

The sport flourished in this country during the 1940s and into the 1950s, although by the middle of that decade its popularity was in steep decline.

A major force in popularising it was a Weymouth-born engineer called Francis William Francillon, whose work for the Admiralty brought him to Swindon during World War Two.

His exploits are chronicled in an excellent article on the website called On the Wire - onthewire.co.uk – which is devoted to the history of the sport.

According to information gathered from various model engineering magazines of the period, Francillon began building and selling his own cars. They were sold from a shop in Victoria Road and at least one other, Hobbies Corner in Rodbourne Road.

Francillon later emigrated to the US. According to the article he died there in 1988.

There are still a handful of enthusiasts in that country and in other locations as diverse as Australia and Bulgaria.

A number of YouTube videos are devoted to the sport.

Do any Rewind readers have more information about the local club and its track?