I think you are forgetting torque too. Trust me, I have had both, and an ST would absolutely screw an st170 round a track, in a straight line, on the road, everywhere.

With a simple remap and a filter, mine now runs 270bhp/330lbft, which is more than adequate! Compare that to a standard st170's torque output of 143lbft, I think you will see that in a tug of war contest, I will happily pull 2 st170s down the road