You're going to be pissing into the wind if that's what you're looking for, as 'sports car' is loosely defined. It IS an idiom, so there are going to be some gray areas, but "no FWD" is pretty clear. It's just that this layout has everything going against it in terms of performance. There are no performance advantages, it was only selected so the car could be cheaper for the end user. This is where the idea of a sports car comes into play. It's got to be as good as the designers wanted it to be.

Someone said FF cars "corner like shit," which isn't necessarily true, but it does lead in to my point: it's not that a car like an ITR or MS3 corners poorly, it just is only cornering as well as it can with all of its economical constraints working against it. AWD, RWD, front engine, mid engine, rear engine...they all have their trade offs, but they are all in search of performance in some way, with one of those "gray areas" I mentioned being AWD, which is often chosen for utility or safety purposes.

In this case, the EVO/STI might come into play. Not sports cars. They are the pinnacle of cheap speed, as they are based off a practical chassis, so costs are kept low, then power and traction are bolted on. You may be able to outperform several sports cars, but it still wasn't a purpose-built chassis. It's got the extra space and weight and height of a Lancer/Impreza and the confined engine bay of a Lancer/Impreza, as well as the congenial interior of a Lancer/Impreza. It's as good as a Lancer/Impreza can be, but being limited to that chassis meant the designers couldn't do everything they wanted with it.

Now the Miata is a bit cheaper, and it's meant to be, but it's all about performance, and doing it cheaply. It's expected to compete in its own racing series, so it rolls off the assembly line with just the basics to be streetable, and within budget, but eager to perform. Every part on that car was designed to work in a sporting environment, and that's what was on the mind of the designers, even the ones making the automatic transmission.

Would you believe the Supra isn't technically a sports car? Silly as it sounds, that's why I got rid of mine, much as I love them.