the power felt at the rear wheels is certainly directly proportional to the size of the engine. it is also influenced by gearing, gross vehicle weight, engine efficiency, etc. i've seen smaller engines pushing a lighter car, do much better than a larger engine trying to push a much heavier car.
find the power coefficient = hp/vehicle weight. then compare that to the civic
[addsig]
Think about the big trucks out there on the hwy. Many of the company trucks on the road are running 325 hp and pulling 64,000 lbs of freight at 65 mph all day long. But lordy what toruqe thay have turnin them 8 big ol pull tires. Low rpm high torque is what it is all about in a jeep, tractor, or anything that gets the work done. High speed horses and rpms can be fun to but for me the it is the tug n pull of a Jeep over the spinnin tire of a hot rod any day. Tug[addsig]
horsepower is a measure of how much work can be done in a matter of so much time... torque is the amount of force applied in a twisting manner at a given point... if you can get a lawnmower engine to successfully spin at an insane speed... perhaps 600,000 rpm , which could result in around 350-400 hp... it could have more horsepower than most of our jeeps, because it is capable of doing more work in a given amount of time... But... the torque would be much lower... the instantaneous force produced by that motor would not compare to the instantaneous force produced by our motors...
so like bluebelle mentioned... the force felt at the wheels would be much different... the gearing of a high torque, low rpm motor could produce a much more powerful product effect than a high horsepower high rpm motor...
a high HP honda motor would dog in our application... it is set to make power at high speeds... it is designed to do very much work at a low force... whereas our motors are designed to do less work at a much higher force.[addsig]