I suppose you would, but you have to be highly skilled to beat Darius in a tuner, regardless of its drivetrain. The fact of the matter is that Darius is fast, and tuners arent. The lack of speed from your ride would be the biggest handicap and it could just overcome you. I wouldn't recommend it to, say, a n00b, but for veterans, i say its a thrilling challenge.
i actually took on darius with the lancer evo and beat him first time around playing the actual game for the first time.
i honestly found kenji harder (but i was in a mazda rx-8 then so that would explain it)