Well BHP and Top Speed and Torque and Acceleration mean nothing in real terms other than bench test figures.
One can configure any combination of the above to deliver (coupled with gearbox ratios), say fastest 0-62mph but a top spead of only 80mph or a top spead of 180mph but rubbish acceleration.
What is important is driveability and this is very specific to application. Drag racing, circuit racing, fast road, pulling power (girls/boys or train weight) etc.
Fast Road is probably the best average overall compromise/optimisation most people will want to make and this goes hand-in-hand with decent handling, roadholding and tractability.
The Strada Abarth 130TC is actually well known for being one of the best ever "point to point" cars one can drive on open, varied, etc. roads. There are some other out there including the old VW Golf, Lotus Sunbeam, Ford RS1600/2000. None of these cars claimed legendary "performance car" status but they were/are still capable of putting shame to many more modern tuned/sup'd up vehicles.
When you consider the Strada's a 130BHP, Torgue of 130 foot pounds, top seed of 122mph and 0-62mph (100km) of 7.9 seconds (many correctly tuned ones achieve 7.5 seconds) you wonder why / how it can actually hold its own against many many other more powerfull, faster, etc. etc. cars.
The Fiat Turbo Coupe (both 16V and 20V) cars was the first ever really driveable Turbo car. Driveability from 0 rpm to 6000rpm. Never the highest torque or power but a pure and clean delivery for just about all fast road applications. This is well documented.
Lets be really realistic here. Fiat, BMW, Subaru, Skoda etc. are in deadly head to head competition with each other in segments of the markets, and for Fiat/Lancia the Strada Abarth, HP Turbo, Coupe, Integrale in most cases outshone/equaled their competition for fast performance road cars. All the manufacturers strive very hard, at great expense, to pip the others to the finishing post.
Bottom line is this. Once you have bought a performance car, be it a Fiat Coupe, Subaru Impreza, etc. then you are driving a very good machine (did I say this?) and varying/departing from standard spec. is an acton that requires very, very careful attention to detail and vehicle dynamics understanding to ensure that you are not actually making your car slower. How you measure speed/slower etc. folds back to actual vehicle usage etc.
P.S - Would add that yes in recent years emissions controls/regulations have knobbled many otherwise decent cars/makes and there are opportunities for the modest undoing of some of these performance restricting changes. However innovations like Fiat's Multi-Air technology significantly redress the balance back to the driver and away from "emissions bureaucrats".