it's not so bad afterall. i just had to get used to driving it differently with the 4age. the exhaust was also too big which caused a noticable lack of torque below 5000rpm.
as for the echo, i think it's a 1.5L.. i ran him again for the sake of proving a point and won easily.
not much to brag about, but i had a good time harassing those stupid skylines and holdens on the weekend with my cousin's evoIII.. 12sec. cars are fun to drive