Specific output (output per unit volume of engine displacement) is up enormously since your HS days. A current Corolla probably outperforms most of the muscle cars of your era. Modern digital engine controls and engine design using computation fluid dynamics for the flow path and 3D finite element analysis for the parts, matters.
And that’s just for starters.
The current Corolla has a quarter mile time of about 17 seconds on modern tires. Big block muscle cars of the late 60s and early 70s did the quarter mile in 13 seconds on little pizza cutter bias ply tires.