Bye bye, Vishnu Evo VIII...
I'm happy to.
My IX isn't broken in, and I haven't gotten on it at all or revved it past ~4000rpm in commuting. Obviously when it is broken in, its going to be much slower than my VIII was, since I had a crap load of mods on it. I plan to address that with a Vishnu v400 kit sometime in the not so distant future.
About the cars in general, its pretty interesting. There are a lot of pros to going to the IX, but a few cons. Overall, I think my VIII was optioned a little higher, so that's most of the beef I have. I should've just gotten an SE, but they weren't available in blue or white, which brought that to a screeching halt.
Cons:
-I miss my HIDs like crazy
-No intercooler sprayer (really a knick knack, but still fun)
-Evo VIII had way better 4th gear spacing for drag racing if you're into that.
-No fog lights either
Pros:
-ACD
-Front LSD
-Mivec
-Bigger stock compressor side on turbo
-Way nicer interior/seat trim
In the amount of time I have been driving it, I feel a definite handling edge my old car didn't have, or didn't have anymore. I even had Advans on the VIII when I sold it, so the tires weren't to blame. I had a Progress rear bar in the middle setting on the VIII, and that might be part of the problem. You could throttle on oversteer that car, but this car is lots more neutral. I kind of feel like the rear bar on the VIII really was more negative to the handling than positive, as there are certain cloverleafs I can take at higher speeds in this car and feel much safer doing it.
Another part of it is probably the ACD and the front limited slip differential. This car feels so sure footed that it seems impossible to overdrive it. You have to realize that I'm kind of a pansy driver (Andrew and Shiv will attest) and that I had a lot of FWD cars before the last 3 AWD cars I had. I understand slight understeer and have made total peace with it. When the car pushes, it doesn't scare me at all, I just drive my limit. With a big rear bar like the VIII had and I can throttle on make the car spin out, that's a little too aggressive for me. It shows more that it was too much since I can take corners faster in this car.
I like the lack of sunroof in the IX, because I used it maybe twice in 50,000 miles in the last car. Looking up when seated, there is A LOT more room for a helmet this time, which rules. I had my WRX on track, but never tracked the VIII. With the much easier to spool stock turbo and Mivec, I think I will have a lot more fun with this car. A big turbo is cool, but midrange drivability really suffers, and I think it would slow down a novice driver like me, especially in a low speed autocross, where I would've likely spent a lot of time below boost threshold in first gear with a GT30.
The Mivec is so sweet even stock, and again, I haven't even pushed the engine yet or even mapped the ECU. Once that is done, I know the IX will be a total blast.
There's serious beauty in making close to 300whp dyno dynamics with stocklike drivability. No aftermarket LUBlubLUBlubLUBlub cams, no heavy azz ACT clutch, no cam gears to screw with that optimize part of the powerband while hindering others, no test pipe that has to be swapped to pass emissions. Just an environmentally clean car that makes v390 like Evo power with better low end that only has an exhaust and tuning! I love the IX.
^Everyone doubted the IX before it came out too. 
Just because the X will have an aluminum open deck block doesn't
mean that it will not be superior in stock form or slightly modified form.
Not everyone wants to throw big turbos on thier Evo.
Just because the X will have an aluminum open deck block doesn't
mean that it will not be superior in stock form or slightly modified form.
Not everyone wants to throw big turbos on thier Evo.
So... does this mean you have some inside info? I'm definitely hoping it won't suck, but as everything related to the X is speculation thus far, I don't see how you can come to a definite conclusion. The voices inside my head do tell me that I want one though... 