While I agree with what you are trying to say, but still your claim is a bit preposterous if you look at it a bit closely.
The old civic 1.5T does 0-40 kph in around 2.5 to 3 seconds if launched properly. Let's take a conservative estimate of 3 seconds.
An elite level cyclist(80 kg weight) can output maybe 1000 watts in a short burst/ sprint. To reach 40 kph from a standstill requires ~5000 joules of energy. So our elite cyclist can maybe do that 0-40 kph sprint in 5 seconds. Probably it will take him more, since I assumed no energy losses.
So no, your average (or for that matter, even Olympic level cyclist) isn't even gonna come close to a 170 hp car. Don't know where you got that notion from.