First of all, if it's the WRX you are talking about, it is a 2.5L horozontally opposed(boxer) engine. It's very well balanced, almost no engine vibration because of that. With the ford, they have the Ztec, essentially the same as Honda's Vtec. But to answer your question, I'm not really sure why Mazda's 2.0 isn't pushing more power. No one has really figured it out. The only thing I can think of is the First cat, but I hollowed mine out and it didn't make a huge difference, just a little.