Via press release Codemasters announced that Colin McRae: Dirt 2 will offer DirectX 11 features that will deliver an enhanced performance. The new API is supposed to be published later the year. Windows 7 which will support DirectX 11, too, is scheduled for release on October, 22 and the first DX 11 hardware is also expected to hit the markets in Q3 or Q4 2009.

Update July 7, 2009
After publishing the press release yesterday the question aroused if the attached pictures are actual DirectX 11 screenshots. According to Matthias Mirlach, Codemasters Product Manager, the two screenshots do not present the DirectX 11 version of the Dirt 2 Ego Engine. They are DX10 pictures only.

Update: July 16, 2009
Today Codemasters officially announce that Colin McRae: Dirt 2 will be released in Europe on September 10, 2009. The game is based on the third generation of the Ego Engine and will be coming to Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PSP. The Games for Windows Live version with DirectX 11 support will be following later this year.

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Codemasters Press Release:

COLIN McRAE™: DiRT™ 2 GAMES FOR WINDOWS® LIVE EDITION TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF DIRECTX® 11 TECHNOLOGIES.
Codemasters® today announced that the Games For Windows® LIVE edition of Colin McRae: DiRT 2, the thrilling and stylish sequel to the award-winning off-road racer, will support the wealth of new performance enhancing features that will be available in DirectX 11.
With DirectX 11 hardware expected to ship in the second half of 2009, and DirectX 11 coming to home computers with the release of Microsoft Windows 7 on October 22, 2009, Codemasters also announced that the Games For Windows® LIVE edition of Colin McRae: DiRT 2 will benefit from an extended development program to take advantage of DirectX 11 and is now scheduled to be published in December 2009.
"While the console editions of Colin McRae: DiRT 2 will retain their September ship date, we believe that the DirectX 11 feature set is too compelling to ignore, especially considering how much more it can add to the visual experience for PC gamers,” said Bryan Marshall, chief technical officer, Codemasters. "As a leader in digital racing entertainment, we are staying ahead of the pack by immediately taking advantage of key new technologies such as hardware tessellation, multi-threading and Shader Model 5.0 to deliver the most realistic, immersive and exhilarating racing experiences in the business. The fusion of DirectX 11 with Codemasters' EGO™ Engine will raise the technical bar considerably in the racing genre.”
With the introduction of Microsoft Windows 7, DirectX 11 will be made available both as part of the operating system and as a downloadable update to Windows Vista. Codemasters intends to immediately take advantage of DirectX 11 features that add to the realism of the racing environment. Hardware tessellation will further improve the appearance of water and other surfaces as well as crowd animations.
The shader performance of Shader Model 5.0 (SM 5.0) will aid in creating an even richer 3D experience, enhancing key image quality parameters such as depth of field, ambient occlusion and shadows. These DirectX 11 features, and many others, will add the horsepower needed to improve performance.
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"We expect Codemasters' early move to DirectX 11 to place them in a leadership position in developing the next generation of PC games and simulations,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president, AMD Products Group. "To aid in transitioning to DirectX 11, AMD is providing Codemasters with access to our software engineering expertise in DirectX 11 technologies such as tessellation and shader modelling. DirectX 11 has all of the ingredients needed to take PC gaming to a new level of realism by giving developers tools to effectively utilize the multi-CPU, multi-GPU systems now available to players.”
Colin McRae: DiRT 2 is being turbocharged for Games For Windows® LIVE supporting DirectX 11 and is set to ship this December. Editions for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Wii™, Nintendo DS™ and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system are scheduled to launch in September. For the latest videos and information, powerslide over to www.dirt2game.com.