Last months Fast Ford has a Puma that he'd previously turbo'd the standard 1.7 and got something like 230bhp at 12psi. Not much info on it though as he ended up dropping a Duratec in it instead.
But it seems the 1.7 likes a bit of air forced down its neck!

Oh, and your next step would be cams to take it up to FRP spec. Should liven it up a bit more.