Internal combustion engines... pretty well done back then.
There are certainly refinements in oils, fuels, computerized ignition systems today, which provide more horsepower.
Even if they had current technology back then we have today their engines wouldn't have done any better than they did. The conditions those old warbirds had to fly under were delimiting.
All types of weather and environmental extremes, shortages of adequate parts, etc. I doubt the screaming little internal combustion engines we have today would have been reliable under such conditions.
Back then horsepower was important, but reliability was just as important.
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