I remember that plane from ads of The Day.   Like many of Ambroid's kits, it was a reissue of an old Consolidated design from prehistoric times.

It must have been designed when engines were weak, because, as you suggest, a heathly 35 would make it pretty fast.  Today, an 09 to 15 would be more realistic.

Ambroid took over Consolidated and issued some new kits (like the Stuka and Scrapper), but also a lot of old Consolidated stuff in nice, new boxes with snappy art work.  Unfortuantely the Consolidated products consisted of low grade wood with terrible die cutting and designs that didn't fit into any event.  AHC typically discounted these kits to $1.95 and threw in some extras to try and move 'em.

Ambroid reboxed them with great new decals.  Maybe with today's materials, etc, modelers will be able to make some nice reproductions of these designs.