[Steveti]

Hi Mike....Some of the early Mk3's suffered with the handling as they weren't good from the factory and the only way to sort it was with 4 wheel alignment.
Having said that your car is 2009 which means its the 'Facelift' I believe, that year on had quite a few tweaks to the suspension to rectify this...
I had a 2010 anniversary on 17" wheels and that was fine...
And as Cobra mentioned maybe the tyres could be a bit of an issue, I had Avons on mine and they were very good.

As Chris has mentioned some NC/Mk3s came out of the factory with awful geometry set ups, I experienced this in 2007 when I changed my NBFL for an NC, it just didn't feel planted at all. I had a full 4 wheel geo carried out on a local company with a Hunter rig and a good knowledge of what he was about, suffice to say the car was absolutely transformed and IMHO, beat the NBFL in every aspect of driveability.

Obviously check the obvious first, make sure you have no bushes or ball joints - front and rear on the way out, as well as wear on the steering linkages, steering rack etc. Check you have the same tyres across axles, the NC does not tolerate a mix over an axle, tyre pressures can also have quite an impact.

In short, the NC is a fantastic car to drive and push on once you have a good geo set up and all of the above are in order,

Good luck and of course, let us all know what you find.