For me, sportiness is all about how the car makes you feel, how it wills you to take the long, fun way home, how it makes you go for a drive down a windy stretch of road for the sheer hell of it.
It's not about outright grip - it's about handling, how the car turns into & goes around a corner, what it feeds back to driver.
It's not about outright power - it's how the motor responds with enthusiasm, and sounds like it's encouraging you to wind it out. How the gearshift is slick and quick, how the steering talks you through the corner.
How the car makes you smile like a loon because of the emotion it stirs in you & how it begs & requires you to drive it, not just point & steer it.
God I miss my MK1 MR2.