The part that I don't agree with is the "beating on it" part. You can add 150hp with a high stall in a built trans and never "beat" on the car. Beating on a car is about driving style and abuse. I could drive mine forever at over 400 RWHP and never break anything whereas a kid with a 90 hp Honda could go out and do continual WOT clutch dumps, banging his rev limiter on everyshift and break something in a week.
Just the act of making a car more powerful and quicker/faster doesn't automatically make it less reliable as a daily driver.