Porsche confirms new compact sports car

The U.S. remains Porsche’s single biggest market, and within the U.S. the state of California has one of the biggest concentrations of its iconic sports cars and SUVs, so it should come as little surprise then that the German automaker typically makes a big deal of the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Last year Porsche presented its Panamera GTS for the first time, anywhere in the world, in L.A. This year, the automaker has confirmed another world premiere: a new compact sports car.

While Porsche hasn’t confirmed just what model we’ll see in L.A., we already knowthat it’s going to be the long-awaited 2013 Porsche Cayman, which we’ve been spying in prototype form for the past couple of years. Expect this second generation of the Porsche Cayman to follow the path of its predecessor. This means drivetrain specifications should come in just a tick above the 2013 Porsche Boxster’s potent figures, a car with which the new Cayman will share a platform.

In base form, the Boxster uses a 2.7-liter flat six to generate 265 horsepower, while the Boxster S gets a 3.4-liter engine good for 315 horsepower. They run to 60 mph in 5.4 and 4.7 seconds, respectively, when equipped with the seven-speed PDK transmission. We expect the Cayman to add 10-20 horsepower to the Boxster’s figures, shaving a tenth or two off its acceleration times.

In addition to the new Cayman, Porsche will also be presenting its all-wheel drive911 Carrera 4 lineup, the first time the cars are being shown in the U.S. As mentioned, the U.S. remains Porsche’s biggest market. In the first 10 months of the U.S., Americans have already snapped up 28,226 Porsche models, an increase of 13 percent for the same period a year ago.