Had a friend with a Evo III and another with a V. Both cars were modded so I can’t speak on stock, but both were stiff, yet compliment for Japanese roads. However, the didn’t beat me up like my STI did. That rode like a truck. One of the builds in my garage was a 2002 wagon with a full s.7 drivetrain swap, to include the DCCD. I prefer the Mitsubishi ACD/AYC systems, with the AYC taking the cake over them all. The torque vectoring from front to rear wasn’t nearly as noticeable or useable as AYC doing it left to right out back. You can get stupid and plant the throttle on exit and the car just squats and goes.
GC/GF/GM always seemed under sprung/under dampened, while the GD/GG were over sprung/under dampened.
Cx9A’s always had the suspension figured out for what ever reason.
That said, they are all rally cars, and pair well with young/silly and/or performance minded people that want to drive a “big stick” around. For driving enjoyment in that class, I’d walk past both the STI and Evo right to Celica GT4 (CT205) and only wish for the Subaru/Evo aftermarket support. The Toyota is a much more pleasurable car to drive daily for my old broken bones.
Alas, my VR4 and its shorter roof sister the Galant, are what lead to the Evo X. Glass smooth V6, ACS, AYC. Even the 5spd tiptronic is self learning and applies your manual shifted driving style to tue auto mode. More or less drives like a couch, but can be tossed around the twisties with the best is it’s era. Was wanting a 5spd with AYC but the only one I could find stateside has some chassis damage and was $5k more than mine. Swaps are not impossible, and will be doing research on a 4G or 6G swap when the 6A finally dies will be a good distraction in the next few years while I amass parts.
