Before you pick whats the purose of the car?
Daily driver, week end street machine, little track mostly track, how deep of gears and stall you willing to go, do you want a car that needs tinkering all the time, gas mileage, etc..
Engines make the majority of there power in the top 1500 rpm of there powerband or so.
If you never rev there, theres little point building up there.
I want a car with some oomph. A fun weekend car I can cruise yet can take to the track and still have fun. My cruising on the highway is taken up by my 50 Chevy 3100 with an inline 6 with 2.56s