Details leaked from an FIA meeting with manufacturers this week reveal plans to get rid of the current WRC cars by 2010 and replace them with new, cheaper machines.

But even these new cars will only be allowed at World level - not on domestic championships like the Irish Tarmac series.

Not, that is, if the sport's governing body gets its way.

But it is early days yet and the proposals are certain to meet with resistance, not least, presumably, from manufacturers like Ford and Subaru who derive part of their rally income from selling on their World championship cars to privateer drivers.

Many of them come to Ireland where it is said there are more WRC cars in private hands than anywhere else in the world.

Indeed, close to 30 of them are scheduled to contest the final round of the Tarmac series in Cork at the end of the month and few would be able to recall the last time an Irish rally, at either international or national level, was won by anything other than a big WRC car.

But these are brutally expensive machines, costing up to £400,000. They are also fearsomely fast and the FIA has been showing increasing determination to get them out of all but World championship events.

They are also keen to encourage more manufactures in and they see cutting the costs, and the sophistication, of the current WRC cars as an essential part of increasing the attraction of the World championship.

Already they have forced the manufacturers to scale back the present crop of WRC cars, which since the start of 2006 have lost the electronic wizardry which controlled their four-wheel-drive systems.

It is why you hear drivers like Eugene Donnelly debating the merits of the Subaru S11 and S12.

The 2005-specification S11, as driven by Kris Meeke to win the Ulster Rally a fortnight ago, has an 'active' transmission system whereas the newer S12, as driven by Donnelly, does not.

Now the FIA wants to pare back still further and is asking the manufacturers to look at building rally cars which are closer to the production machines (Group N) or the new Super 2000 category which is gaining popularity in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge series.

The FIA is pushing for this new version of a WRC car to be introduced in 2009 and from 2010 these cars would form the basis of the World championship.

But, unlike the current WRC cars, they would not be allowed to pass into private hands for use in domestic competition.

An FIA spokesman confirmed the meeting had taken place and said: "There is a definite will to see World Rally Cars only at the top of the sport. And the manufacturers are supporting that.

"It makes good sense to do this. These cars are no longer permitted in FIA Regional Championships, and that decision was made for a good reason: they're too expensive.

"We now want to only see WRCs right at the top, not in domestic rallying."

However, there was no explanation as what cars would be allowed in domestic competition. Group N? Super 2000?

And what would happen to the new WRC cars after the major teams have finished with them.

It would be quite ridiculous to think they would simply be scrapped.

And it would fly in the face of the cost-saving aims of the proposals because the top teams derive a sizeable income from selling on their used cars.

Equally, there are perhaps hundreds of drivers, many of them Irish, who have invested heavily in ex-M-Sport Fords and Prodrive Subarus - do these cars then become worthless after 2009 or 2010?

Clearly these proposals have a long way to go before they become law but there can be little doubt something has to be done to stop the spiralling costs.

At the top of the Irish Tarmac championship it costs between £300,000 and £400,000 for a fully competitive (winning) car and then anything from £20,000 to £40,000 to maintain and run it PER EVENT.

These sums are unsustainable and are the main reason we see so few young drivers in these cars.

There are exceptions, of course - Andreas Mikkelsen and Gareth MacHale for example - but they have access to substantial family backing and for someone like Meeke it is only his outstanding talent which attracts the intermittent support of sponsors with that kind of money.

But even someone like triple Tarmac champion Donnelly found the strain of running the latest S12 Subaru too much and earlier this year it was sold on to the Reid Motorsport team only to be moved on again in the past week to Derek McGarrity, arguably the most successful WRC car dealer in Britain.

Fortunately, through all these moves, Donnelly has remained the driver but, with no car of his own now, he would admit there are no guarantees beyond the end of the season - even if he adds a record fourth Tarmac title to his CV in Cork.

The FIA proposals have merit - but can they be refined enough to get the support they need? Time will tell.