I wholeheartedly believe in breaking a car in hard if you want it to run strong it's whole life. Ive done so to both the 2.5L when I bought the car new, and the 3L and both have run very strong.
But it could be a number of reasons. How well maintained is a key factor. I would say if his intake manifolds are gunked up, and yours have been cleaned recently, then that could be a big factor. Other than that, maybe you're just a better ATX driver?
Mark
