That's modern power creep speaking. You don't need the massive power of modern automobiles. That 7 second 0-60 on your mid-sized sedan? Faster than nearly all sports cars 30 years ago. Absolutely blistering compared to any car 50 years ago.

40hp is about what you use on the freeway, or at least it used to be before the average car came to weight 2 tons. You don't need a whole lot more than that. Hell, the MG Midget was offered with a 30HP engine once, IIRC.

I'm quite sure in a decade or two we're going to have people saying things like, "It's true you CAN make a car with only 200hp, but it's generally accepted you need at least 800hp for any car"...