to present plans in September

At last week's meeting of the Motor Sports Council (Thursday 15 June), representatives of the MSA Rallies Committee confirmed that the proposed revision of rule K37 - the technical regulations for special stage rally cars - will not be presented before September.

As a result, the earliest date for any regulation changes to come into effect for new cars will be 1 January 2009, a year later than was originally envisaged. All existing vehicles will remain eligible to compete until at least 1 January 2010.

John Richardson, Chairman of the MSA Rallies Committee said: "While we have made a lot of progress this year and established the broad principles, the devil as ever is in the detail. It is a complicated scenario and we need to make sure that the framework is robust and effective."