diff --git a/includes/common.inc b/includes/common.inc
index 34828e8..9f9cd5e 100644
--- a/includes/common.inc
+++ b/includes/common.inc
@@ -765,6 +765,8 @@ function drupal_access_denied() {
  *     call may take. The default is 30 seconds. If a timeout occurs, the error
  *     code is set to the HTTP_REQUEST_TIMEOUT constant.
  *   - context: A context resource created with stream_context_create().
+ *   - http_version: (optional) The HTTP version to use for the request.
+ *     Defaults to 1.0.
  *
  * @return object
  *   An object that can have one or more of the following components:
@@ -819,6 +821,7 @@ function drupal_http_request($url, array $options = array()) {
     'max_redirects' => 3,
     'timeout' => 30.0,
     'context' => NULL,
+    'http_version' => '1.0',
   );
 
   // Merge the default headers.
@@ -943,7 +946,7 @@ function drupal_http_request($url, array $options = array()) {
     $options['headers']['User-Agent'] = drupal_generate_test_ua($test_info['test_run_id']);
   }
 
-  $request = $options['method'] . ' ' . $path . " HTTP/1.0\r\n";
+  $request = $options['method'] . ' ' . $path . ' HTTP/' . $options['http_version'] . "\r\n";
   foreach ($options['headers'] as $name => $value) {
     $request .= $name . ': ' . trim($value) . "\r\n";
   }