Between the superior engine components and geometry, and properly built (and with an adequate valvetrain), I can see this engine spinning to 12K RPM all day without a hitch. There aren't cams out there that could use 12K, but I'll bet you could.
Go here for cams that rev to 12K. Cheaper than the Toda/JUN crap, and they make more power. Brad can get you breaking 200+ whp (what is your budget, anyway?) off of 1.8 liters in street trim.
By now, everyone is pretty familiar with my favorite saying: If it was all that great, Honda would have done it in the first place.
I dunno, Honduh fucks things up left and right in my mind. If they had bothered to make a single OBD2 compliant car before the RSX-S, you wouldn't see OBD conversion harnesses for chipped ECUs as the stock ECU would be flashable via CANbus. Don't even get me started on D-series transmissions, PCV placement, or whatever my current gripe is.
Oh, yeah, NA small displacement "performance" is a complete waste of time. Sorry to be a hater, I've just seen a lot more power and a lot more reliablility for a lot less money from well applied boost.