I found his definitions to be somewhat curious although there certainly are distinctions that can be made for what he describes as "Drivers" vs "Atari" cars. Most writers would combine the whole lot into "Sports" cars and simply recognize that there are a lot of variants within the genre.
I have been a DE instructor for the last 5 years and have spent lots of time working with drivers of all skill levels in a lot of different "Atari" cars as well as "Drivers" cars and they are remarkably different cars that really aren't trying to be the same in the first place. I would personally place modern Porsches in the Atari car category given that they are now almost overloaded with traction control aids but they have a cult following that excels in marketing the brand at a higher level than is likely warranted.
I owned several different Audis including 2 S4's that I spent a lot of time on the track with. I would definitely lump those cars as Atari type cars although as sedans they really aren't part of this discussion. Audis are by definition nose heavy cars that use a lot of suspension tweaks to make them feel not quite as out of balance. Audis are quite fast on a track, but the tweaks that make up for the car's imbalance on the scales also bury a lot of the road feel to the driver and the quattro drivetrain makes almost anyone look good when they actually have no clue what they are doing behind the wheel in the first place. It's hard to teach Audi drivers on the track when so many of the subtle things that distinguish a really good driver from the intermediate ones can't really be felt by the driver in the first place. I have had the same problem at Porsche Club events too.
I moved from those to a Honda S2000 which is firmly in the group called "Drivers" cars. That car was incredible for communicating absolutely everything to the driver and left you with no doubt at all as to what it was going to do on the roadway. The S2000 was the opposite of an Atari car - any wrong moves you made behind the wheel would translate directly to what the car was doing and leave little doubt that you didn't do it right. In comparison, my Z4 Coupe is a much faster car that will outcorner the S2000 but is a little numb feeling compared to the S2000. The Z4 is much more forgiving of driver input errors than the S2000 but not the extent that it could be called an Atari car. The Z4 is heads and shoulders above the Audis for communicating with the driver - especially when it comes to balance.
Consider the variation within the Z4 family alone - a 3.0i with no sports package is less lively than a 3.0si with the Sports package and both of these have a different road feel compared to the ///M. The Coupes have a stiffer chassis than the roadsters so they are a little different yet. The writer made no effort to distinguish these variations and painted the Z4 with a broad brush.
I am not sure I would really try to read a lot into the writer's distinctions under the circumstances and to be honest I like the fact that the Zed is more of a Driver's car than an Atari car. The Driver's cars are a lot more fun and that's what I bought mine for.....
