Displacement and/or boost, yes sir. At a fundamental level, you need to burn more gasoline to generate more power and torque. The other exception is a hybrid design where an electric motor supplements the torque, something a few hypercars do, and the monster Corvette is supposed to do.
The GTI is the second car I've owned that I did not have the seat all the way back.
When it was broken in a bit, I did hit throttle pretty hard from a stop and the engine bogged down, the computer was trying to eliminate wheel spin. I reset it to sport mode and it didn't happen. It has five modes that drive pretty differently, including one that is "custom".
The CTS V included Track One, Track Two, and "Off". Off was hairy.