Brakes can feel very different on different cars...but how brakes feel and how they perform can be two very different things.
Just about all modern cars have a brake servo. This brake servo acts to increase the pressure you apply to the pedal, it's like a helping hand...for your foot! If you drive an old car without a servo you'd be amazed at just how hard to have to push the pedal to get the brakes working.
Now brake servo's can have a dramatic effect on the feel of the brakes. Too much assistance and the brakes will be quite harsh, applying a lot of stopping force without much pressure from your foot. This can give the feeling/impression that the brakes are good...but actually once applied hard in an attempt to stop the car, from say 70mph, they might not do a great job. You'll often read car reviews where the tester will say that the brakes feel 'over-servo'd' i.e. they have too much assistance and are grabby/jumpy. Our old Megane 1.6 had VERY grabby brakes...but once you'd applied them hard the stopping power wasn't anything amazing.
The 197 might be a car that doesn't have huge amounts of servo assistance. In this case you might have to push the pedal harder than you are used to. The brakes can (and being a 197 should) have great stopping power.
Ultimate stopping power is mainly dictated by the size of the disk, the compound/size of the brake pad as well as the weight of the car...in some cars it requires more effort from your leg/foot to extract the performance.
Of course your pads could be glazed or overly worn. Your brake fluid could be old + tired. Might be worth having some who knows check they are in good serviceable condition. Like you say a few people have tried the car and say it's ok.
