Also remember that peak torque isn't much of an indication of what the torque will be like before boost...
Fair enough. Forget the before boost bit then - I guess I was assuming more peak torque more torque througout the range aswell. I know you could have more peak torque but a nasty peaky curve - but I figured toyota wouldnt build a stock engine quite like that. A car you have to rev the piss out of just to get going isn't fun in my book.
I think the insurance/engineering hurdles would probably be the same for both engines.
I'm not so sure - as the engine was offered from the factory in the exact same chassis, and no parts need to be fabbed/altered etc, surely it would be a lot easier.