I think running in has a lot to do with it. I used to work for a company many moons ago that had lots of similar company cars (Astras, Cortinas and Escorts) and it was interesting to compare cars and their keepers. Performance varied substantially between identical models - myself it seemed to be the "livelier" drivers that had much nippier cars. I used to borrow two 1.6 Cortinas (same spec/age) - one was a bit flat but the other flew!

When I got a brand new 89 1.3 Astra (not my money so I didn't car too much) - despite the strict gentle run in regime at the time I decided to really vary the driving including giving it some beans very early on. This car became very lively considering it was only a 1.3 and when I left the company the next driver commented as to how lively it was without any prompting from me.

Fast forward to 2001 and I bought a brand new Octavia 1.416v 75ps (was my money and very cheap as the engine size wasn't popular!) - this was bought as a cheap as chips high mileage commute car. I decided to run in as above and after about 3000 miles this, considering it's supposed a slug, become rather lively - Infact it was the car of choice to tour Europe for over a decade. Fast forward to today and 134k miles later, my son has it now - it still holds its own on a motorway and burns little oil - not bad considering this is an engine that has had bad PR on this site in the past with reports of oil burning and pistons failing at 30k miles! Saying that I'm a stickler for regular servicing and usually use higher octane petrol.