What you are experiencing is a car with tall gearing. You need to work the car a bit harder in the gears, i.e. don't change up so early in the rev range, keep the revs above, say, 2,500 rpm. You will find your car much more responsive. Most cars are quite high geared now primarily to give them low exhaust emissions and good fuel economy, but this does dull the potential liveliness of the car.