Personally I don't see why people make such a big deal about the MR2's handling.
It behaves more less as you would expect a rear heavy RWD car to behave.
Plus all this talk about how the car
(yes, in particular the turbo) would give poor lap times because of the way they handle is not necessarily true.
If you give a higher powered car decent grippy tyres it is going to give you faster lap times in general as was shown in a recent hot hatch shootout in Top Gear magazine.
Besides the turbo is an extremely capable car that can hold its own with a lot of more modern and more expensive vehicles.
In fact there was a video circulating the internet by Best Motoring that showed 7 unmodified cars being raced around a circuit over several laps
by professional drivers.
The end position results along with each car's best lap time was as follows:
1) Supra RZ 1'06"75
(Lap 2)
2) GT-R V-spec 1'07"09
(Lap 2)
3) NSX 1'08"71
(Lap 5)
4) 911 1'08"46
(Lap 5)
5) MR2 GTS 1'08"75
(Lap 4)
6) NSX-T
(Auto) 1'10"52
(Lap 2)
The RX-7 RZ had problems and did not finish the race but did post a best lap time of 1'08"92
(Lap 2) whilst it was out there.
As you can see the stock tubby is posting a best lap time that is almost identicle to the NSX which is a bit of a legend in the handling stakes.
Now maybe most normal drivers wouldn't be able to drive it like that
(I know I couldn't as my driving sucks
) but it definately shows how capable the Tubby is even in stock form
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