OK. You know about the 911. Flat-six engine hanging out over the rear wheels, body profile unchanged since its introduction in 1964. Yet here we are in mid-2008 with another revision to the icon. First impressions are muted. Fog lights gone at the front, replaced by LED driving lights. Slightly bigger air intakes.

Some new wheels, new colours and new rear lights. But here’s the thing. Porsche is introducing some of the most significant changes since the 911 went air-cooled back in 1996. The headlines shout about the direct injection for the engine and the new PDK double-clutch transmission. Should you care? You will if you’ve already taken delivery of a new 911 this year.

For you’ve missed out on a totally new engine and a gearbox that makes the old Tiptronic auto look very last year indeed.

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Performance
While the capacity and basic layout remain constant, this engine is redesigned from the ground up. It’s simpler, with 40% fewer major components, stronger (which should lay to rest the oil seal problems remembered by so many owners of 996-derivative 911s) and lighter.

It’s also a flatter flat six, which lowers the centre of gravity and does no harm at all to the handling. All this tends to get glossed over by the introduction of direct injection. It’s not new to Porsche petrol engines - the Cayenne V6 and V8 have had it for some time - but it’s vital to the future of the 911.

In simple terms, petrol is squirted directly into each combustion chamber rather than into the manifold. This requires great accuracy and fine engineering, but there are many potential benefits. Importantly, CO2 emissions are reduced, a target for every car manufacturer but especially Porsche which has no small cars to balance the equation (not until it buys VW, that is).

British buyers even get a specially tweaked version of the Carrera 2, which squeezes the C02 down from 242 to 225 g/km, making for a potential tax break. Economy is better. Of course, being Porsche, there’s more power too! This 3.8-litre Carrera S now has 385bhp, an increase of 30bhp. There’s more to it than that, though.

The engine seems smoother, more refined and the throttle response is faster. It’s blindingly quick too. Forget the claimed outputs of Evos and STis, this Carrera S is in a different league. The howl may be a little muted (the sports exhaust could be an essential option) but the way this 911 relentlessly rockets forward is simply breathtaking.

The Sport and Sport Plus buttons sharpen things up even more, the latter so aggressive it’s likely to be saved for track days. If you specify the PDK transmission with ‘Sports Chrono Plus’ there’s another treat in store: launch control, simply the fastest way imaginable to get a 911 off the line. PDK is sure to be popular.

A seven-speed manual gearbox with electronic control of two clutches, it drives like a good auto or the driver can take complete control. Changes are lightening quick, so fast in fact, that a PDK-equipped 911 is both faster and more economical than a manual car. It’s not 100% perfect though.

There’s a slight clunk as the car comes to rest and the shifts are brutal in the Sport Plus mode. Porsche also stubbornly sticks to steering wheel buttons for the manual changes. They’re much improved, but paddles are better. Sports Chrono Plus comes with the irritatingly naff dashboard mounted stopwatch.

When your passengers ask you what it is, as they undoubtedly will, you’re forced to explain about your need to time your laps of Silverstone to the nearest 1,000th of a second. Which is sadly anal but as it gives you the option of a faster gearshift program as well as launch control, it’s hugely tempting.

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