Bought an NA AW11 and took it in 100% stock form around tsukuba, using DS3 controller (couldn't be bothered setting up the G25). It's a handful, particularly on the final long corner coming onto the straight, but by no means broken. With a wheel it'd be easier to control, and definitely manageable and competitive in it's pp class.
I chose it since I have own & drive one (close to stock) in real life - and the AW11 handles pretty similarly to the real life one. It's very susceptible to both snap oversteer and lift off oversteer, and understeer into corners. I've not spun it IRL (almost did when I first got it, not fun) but weight shift in the rear is noticeable even nowhere near the limit, and lift-off turn-in is massive (made worse by initial understeer), so I imagine driving at the limit would exacerbate those issues (and reports I've heard are that it is indeed a handful - browse MR2 forums and there's plenty of wreck stories where the snap-oversteer caught someone out). The rear end is also very hard to catch - the one time I almost lost it was at very low speed on cold roads, turned a corner and the rear stepped out - it simply keeps sliding past where you'd expect an FR car to stop, since momentum is working against you. Turned a 90 degree corner perfectly, but did so a lot faster than I intended...But I learned my lesson
A good example of the snap oversteer of the MR2's can be seen in a recent season of Top Gear (19 I think?) Where the guys bought cars for rallycross, and James May chose an SW20. He lost it in one direction, tried to counter, and it snapped back into the wall or another car. It's a common trait of the MR2's. (Used to own an SW20 Turbo too
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It's definitely not broken in the game though - any MR car being driven close to the limit will be a handful, and trying to drive it like an FR car will result in spins and snap oversteer - I think that's the greater issue here. Any braking from high speed in anything other than a straight line, or trying to scrub speed through a corner like you would in a better behaved FR or particularly FF car *will* result in a large loss of stability.
The general rule with the AW11 (and MR's in general) is that you take more speed out of the corner than you took going in - anything else and you're more likely to come out facing the wrong direction. And try not to break traction! Once the rear end starts to slide out you'll be spending more time trying to catch it than taking a fast line through the corner.
