public function request($url, $headers = array(), $data = array(), $options = array()) {
		$this->hooks = $options['hooks'];

		$this->setup_handle($url, $headers, $data, $options);

		$options['hooks']->dispatch('curl.before_send', array(&$this->handle));

		if ($options['filename'] !== false) {
			$this->stream_handle = fopen($options['filename'], 'wb');
		}

		$this->response_data = '';
		$this->response_bytes = 0;
		$this->response_byte_limit = false;
		if ($options['max_bytes'] !== false) {
			$this->response_byte_limit = $options['max_bytes'];
		}

		if (isset($options['verify'])) {
			if ($options['verify'] === false) {
				curl_setopt($this->handle, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
				curl_setopt($this->handle, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
			}
			elseif (is_string($options['verify'])) {
				curl_setopt($this->handle, CURLOPT_CAINFO, $options['verify']);
			}
		}

		if (isset($options['verifyname']) && $options['verifyname'] === false) {
			curl_setopt($this->handle, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
		}

		curl_exec($this->handle);
		$response = $this->response_data;

		$options['hooks']->dispatch('curl.after_send', array());

		if (curl_errno($this->handle) === 23 || curl_errno($this->handle) === 61) {
			// Reset encoding and try again
			curl_setopt($this->handle, CURLOPT_ENCODING, 'none');

			$this->response_data = '';
			$this->response_bytes = 0;
			curl_exec($this->handle);
			$response = $this->response_data;
		}

		$this->process_response($response, $options);

		// Need to remove the $this reference from the curl handle.
		// Otherwise Requests_Transport_cURL wont be garbage collected and the curl_close() will never be called.
		curl_setopt($this->handle, CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION, null);
		curl_setopt($this->handle, CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION, null);

		return $this->headers;
	}