Look at it this way...
You will need to generate big torque down low, thru the mids, and up high. This is the REAL goal of every person on this board who has an SC. And this is the philosophy that pretty much everyone else with a potentially fast street car is trying to achieve. Torque is king- if it can be effectively controlled in a lightweight car, and with the right setup- practically no one would be able to outrun you (in a perfect world
. The problem with the SC is that the current hardware setups we are using are not allowing the engine to produce enough of the good stuff (torque) to overcome the SC's shortcomings. There are physical limitations with the 3.8 v6- then there is a weight issue with the car itself. Someday the SC community will overcome these problems.
Horsepower is simply a measurement of how much work is being produced by that engine at any given rpm.
People don't think in terms of torque at higher rpms, but it is a fact that you need high end torque as well. That is what's so great about cars like the Dodge Viper- it has a very wide, even, power bandwidth which happens to produce high horsepower numbers up high as well as high torque numbers down low and high. And unfortunately, the honda VTEC engines use the same wide bandwidth philosophy- but at a much lower power level (for gas mileage and efficiency).
Forgive me for saying this, but look at the turbo Supra. that car was built for massive power at high rpms, but does not create alot of torque down low. AND, it's just about as heavy as an SC. But it has a very narrow but massive torque output (especially when modded) at high rpms- so much up high that this car can rip a viper on the top end. The Supra produces torque in such a way that it allows you to get a decent launch off the line, and more than makes up for that turbo lag down low by pulling extremely hard on the top end. In general, a stock SC will beat a stock or modded supra off the line, but above 50 mph or so look out- he's about to own you.
So what you want is the same as i want- a wide powerband like a viper. Torque is the force that is turning the wheels, not horsepower. It's just that if you have big torque up high, you will have a big horsepower number. When we are adding mods to open up the airflow capacity of the 3.8 v6, we are actually increasing the max amount of air that engine can process which in turn increases torque and hp. Some mods just accentuate torque in certain areas of the rpm band.
Anyway, this is why those projects like the whipple and the turbo are being heavily pursued here- the end results of these will put our cars very close to the big leagues.
hope that helps.