If you want power you have to pay for it. Nothing wrong with the 3V engines power wise. They have a very flat and broad torque curve and like to rev. Setup correctly they can run with pretty much anything you will find out on the street. Is it the latest and greatest? No but they are cheap to work on, plentiful and you can get good power out of them. Honestly for about 10-12K you can have a built car that will run hard all the time and not be finicky but very streetable and dead reliable with a solid track record.
