One of the best drivers cars around, perfect balance, great chassis and the engine is different in that it has a very low compression ratio compared to engines of similar age which lends its self so well to forced induction.
With no internal mods whatsoever you can boost them to 250bhp and still be reilable. jackson Racing, HKS, Blitz to name but a few all do forced induction kits, not many people bother with trying to tune them N/A because not much to gain.
So it comes down to choice of supercharged for big engine feel, or turbo charged for more top end power and more breakaway power delivery.
If importing you can get a 1.6L model if its pre 1996 IIRC it has 120ish bhp, some 30more than UK models, and not far off the unstressed 1.8 but it is also lighter.
There is a buying guide in this months Practical Performance Car mag which goes into much more detail than I have on what can be done, and why some have LSD's and most (UK) models do not.
Of course as its for Mrs you may not want to know of the plethora of mods available for them, but you may just enjoy driving it soo much that you do