More power on road with or without engine swap?

It goes against my driving style, but the Jimny engine isn't bothered about high RPM, it will sit there all day. I've (with the caravan on the back) been forced to rev the nuts out of it for long periods, its no problem for that little Suzuki engine.
Sound proofing may help make the cabin a more enjoyable space, I've gone the other way and fitted a loud exhaust 

Or just cruise at 60-65mph. I seriously doubt you'd notice any real difference to journey times.

After years of fairly powerful engines that will just sit at 75 all day the Jimny did seem slow and when I first got it I cruised at 55-60 as I didn’t like the noise and relatively light steering.

Now that I have got used to the noise and fitted a steering damper I will happily sit at 65 with the odd departure to 70. 300BHP has it right though the difference in journey time between 65 and 70 is only about 4 minutes per hour, so even if you drive all day you might only be looking at 30 minutes longer.

Although in the UK with traffic and roadworks you will probably find it hard to sit at 70 or over for very long.

Robin

The faster you go, the less time it takes. And the longer the journey, the more difference that makes. I recently averaged 67mph on a 550 mile trip to Inverness (not in a Jimny, admittedly). It took 8.5hrs. A friend who believes the "you won't get there any quicker" mantra took almost 13hrs to do the same trip.
Driving to the alps on decent French roads there's no reason to sit at 65mph.

The other answer of course is not a bigger motor but a bigger stereo. On long trips it's useful to over power the road noise. Late at night it's good for keeping you awake and on a Friday evening it's good for getting attention off of the scantily clad crew in the town centre. Also nowadays the cost of a decent pounding system is peanuts compared to when I was a kid in a Polo.

wrote:

The faster you go, the less time it takes. And the longer the journey, the more difference that makes. I recently averaged 67mph on a 550 mile trip to Inverness (not in a Jimny, admittedly). It took 8.5hrs. A friend who believes the "you won't get there any quicker" mantra took almost 13hrs to do the same trip.
Driving to the alps on decent French roads there's no reason to sit at 65mph.

With a 4.5hr difference or 42% longer journey time, I'm guessing there is far more to this story than just motorway cruising speeds.....