A V8 doesn't cure everything. It's a very tiny car and the FVA put out something like 250hp a huge amount of power for just 1600cc. It was built to compete with Elva, Ginetta and the inimitable Chevrons all with similarly small but powerful motors.
To give you an idea, I once raced against a Chevron B16 - beautiful car with I think a 2 litre BMW possibly - at Castle Combe near Bristol. I was driving a Roger Penske built tube framed Camaro putting out something like 550 hp. I weighed in at about 2,000lbs and I think the Chevron weighed something North of 1,500. I could not believe how fast that mother was. Certainly I could power past him on the limited straights, but he would inevitably mug me on every corner.
I do believe that his was more fun to drive than mine and his roof line didn't even come up to my door handle, and my Camaro was low!
I suppose it's a different philosophy. I loved the big bangers, but I had more fun with the small engines screamers and the bonus was, I learned to race better in a car where you had to keep the momentum up and keep the high revving motor in the narrow power band.