Word is that Porsche has released information for the 2009 Porsche 911 997 line. Unfortunately for those of us that are not die-hard 911 fans it took a couple comparisons of the “older” 977 models to realize that there are new taillights and the new front bumper may be different. Porsche is really sticking to their mantra of not changing a good thing.

Fortunately there is apparently a whole host of new changes “under the hood”. The essentials are still the same; flat 6 engine located way in the back. The engine gets direct injection technology that gives it a 20 horsepower boost to 345 for the vanilla 911 and a 30 horsepower boost in the “S” version.

The biggest change seems to lie in the transmission – the 2009 models will be available with the controversial dual clutch transmission with seven speeds. While the debate over manual and automated sequential transmissions will probably rage on for a good while longer, it seems that more high performance cars are offering this technology and in some cases – ONLY offering the automated sequential transmission (Nissan GT-R, for now).