its true that you must have a good power curve to be faster..... and its okay if the nissan or mitsubishi has better power to like 6000rpm or so...

remember that honda's are higher reving engines.... and the tranny is geared for where the rev would drop to.. which means the honda/acura engines rpm drops to 6000rpm.... and that is where most honda/acura makes power.. its about useable power...

if honda wanted better or more lowend im sure they would have built their motors differently.