I give you:
two Space Race victories with Egyt.
First, a conventional one with Niwt-Rst as capital.
Egyt might be rated as poor production but you can turn Niwt-Rst into a downright insane center of commerce, science and production. I settled a good number of great people and spammed wonders as if they're a dime a dozen. I didn't destroy Ethiopia on spawn like I usually do and I think it paid off.
The holy cities of Judaism and Christianity were razed early which brought Islam into a dominant position. I quickly jumped on the bandwagon and started spreading Islam with extreme prejudice, converting Persia, England, Portugal, Spain, Netherlands... I could even convince India to switch to Islam in exchange for a minor tech. He switched back 20 or so turns later, but I could get him again for another tech
It kept going like this and I was far enough ahead to humor Ghandi's wishes.
Babylonia held on surprisingly long and became my vassal. They only got in trouble with the Turkey spawn and lost their capital. I took it back but wasn't offered the choice of 'return to owner' like I was with Saida so I razed it. In retrospect I could just have given the city back to my vassal through the diplomacy screen... Oh well.
Anyway, Babylon collapsed then after all and Turkey capitulated after I gave them a sound whooping. Well, lose a vassal win a vassal... Never the less they became really powerful afterwards and took large parts of mainland Europe.
Stability in my experience ceases to be a problem if you get as far as Steam Power. From then on you have decent production, are able to expand, build +Stability buildings and trade quite well. The inexplicable bad foreign rating still messes with you but you can compensate in other areas. Just be sure to get the Forbidden Palace. Two vassals helped me too getting through the rough patches.
I think if I go back to a save from the time I reached Nationalism I might even be able to pull off a Domination victory. Stability at that point really wasn't much of an issue anymore.
The second, far less conventional Space Race victory I achieved when I abandoned Egypt and moved my starting settler down to South Africa.
Yes, really. After you figure out the pitfalls this is surprisingly effective.
