> Erm... 1.6L means that the engine block has a displacement of 1.6L, while 
> 2.3L means that the displacement is 2.3L - i.e., the cylinders are 
> physically bigger.

It used to be like that, if you bought a "one point six" it meant the engine 
displacement was roughly 1600 cc, but nowadays car makers like to keep the 
"one point six" naming convention but actually have a standard engine 
displacement across all models.  A bit like how AMD called their processor 
an XP2400, but it wasn't 2400 MHz.  If I'd bought the "1.6" version of my 
car it would have exactly the same engine as the "2.0" version, displacement 
1998cc.

> The Real WTF of course is that displacement is not directly related to 
> power output in the first place...

There are a vast number of things that significantly affect power output 
apart from displacement.  A useful quantity is "horsepower per litre" to 
compare engines.  Really efficient road-car engines can get up to 100 
HP/litre, racing engines over 300 hp/litre.

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