My son and his buddy bought and restored a 1980 VW Rabbit. They replaced the fuel injection system with a carburetor. Someone had replaced the engine with an Audi engine at some point. 110 hp supposedly.
My 2003 Infiniti has 260hp.
‘83 GTI hauled over 24 lbs for each horsepower. Even a standard cheap Golf, not far from the $19,000 benchmark, boasts only 17.5 lbs/hp. The more expensive GTI comes in at less than 15 lbs/hp.