Porsche’s completely-redesigned 2013 Boxster was a major step forward for the German brand, and it looks like the all-new 2013 Cayman will offer the same progress in a hard-top version. The new car certainly looks better (in our eyes, anyway), and we’ll tell you exactly how much better it is to drive as soon as we get some seat time.

For now, the new Cayman offers buyers the choice of a 2.7-liter flat-six good for 275 horsepower (in base models), or a 3.4-liter flat-six rated at 325 horsepower (in S models). While the new Cayman models are more fuel efficient than those of the previous generation, Porsche knows it still needs to step up its game to meet future fuel economy and emission standards.

We’ve known since September of 2011 that Porsche was working on a four-cylinder boxer engine, which is historically significant since that’s what powered Porsche’s first efforts. Now, Italian website 0 - 100 is advising that this engine will debut, in turbocharged form, in the engine bay of a Porsche Cayman at the 2013 Frankfurt Auto Show.

Expect the range-topping model to be called the Porsche Cayman Turbo. Its 2.5-liter boxer engine is said to be good for 350 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque, and it will come bolted to Porsche’s dual-clutch PDK transmission only.

The same 2.5-liter flat-four engine will fit in the Boxster as well, so we’d be surprised if Porsche didn’t introduce a turbocharged variant of this car, too. Since the “Baby Boxster” is now on hold, it’s possible that Porsche would fit a normally-aspirated flat-four in the base Cayman and Boxster to attract even more buyers.

While performance figures for the still-fictional Cayman Turbo have yet to be released, that’s a serious amount of thrust for Cayman and (potentially) Boxster models. It makes us wonder what steps Porsche will take to prevent the Cayman Turbo and Boxster Turbo from pirating sales of the Porsche 911, which brings the company higher margins.