Of course it is common to attach そうだ to na-adjectives or i-adjectives （高そうな車,
元気そうな人 etc), but it doesn't seem to be the case for kango words which can
operate as either nouns or adjectives.

For example, it sounds natural (to me) to say 良さそうな車 but it sounds unnatural
(to me) to say 良質そうな車. I was thinking about describing an oncoming typhoon as
強烈そうな台風 but again it sounds a little strange to me. Is is simply that it is
less common to attach そう to kango adjectival nouns, or is it actually
unnatural to do so?
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grammar wago-and-kango
Can you use そうだ (appear, seem) with kango adjectival nouns?
According to the dictionary, 強烈 is a na-adjective.  
[https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/57214/meaning/m0u/強烈/](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/57214/meaning/m0u/%E5%BC%B7%E7%83%88/)  
Examples:  
強烈なパンチ  
強烈な個性  
強烈なにおい

So 強烈そうな台風 is correct.

According to "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar", page 411:  
Noun or noun+copula (not just 漢語, but any noun) cannot precede そうだ, but the
negative non-past of the copula can.

Examples:  
Wrong: 加藤さんは先生そうだ。  
Wrong: 加藤さんは先生だそうだ。(this is correct only if そうだ means hearsay)  
Correct: 加藤さは先生じゃなさそうだ。
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You seems to have misunderstood the concept of na-adjective. [All na-
adjectives accept -だ](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese/Lessons/Na-
adjectives), so just because you can say 強烈だ does not mean 強烈 also works as a
simple noun. A simple noun can take case particles like は/が/を, but you cannot
say 強烈がある or 強烈を見る, right?

  * 元気: a na-adjective that also works as a standalone noun. 

> 元気な人。彼は元気だ。元気 **が** ある。元気 **を** 出す。

  * 良質: a na-/no-adjective that can only describe a noun (attributively or predicatively). It very rarely works as a standalone noun. 

> 良質なダイヤ。良質のダイヤ。このダイヤは良質だ。(×良質がある。)

  * 強烈: a na-adjective that can describe a noun (attributively or predicatively) or a verb or another adjective (adverbially). It cannot work as a standalone noun. 

> 強烈な台風。この台風は強烈だ。彼を強烈に殴る。これは強烈に辛い。(×強烈がある。)

So quite contrary to your statements, 良質 and 強烈 are "purer" na-adjectives, and
your question seems baseless to me. If a word works as a na-adjective, you can
attach そうな to it, at least grammatically. But it does not mean `na-adj + そうな`
must always make sense. 良質そうな車 and 強烈そうな台風 are unnatural for different
reasons.

  * 良質そうな車 is unnatural because 良質 usually describes natural products like fruit, ore, oil, etc. But you can safely say 高級そうな車 instead although 高級 is a two-kanji kango word.
  * 強烈そうな台風 is almost always unnatural because そう always involves a direct observation, and ordinary people cannot directly observe a typhoon and say "That typhoon appears to be furious" before knowing about it on TV or the internet. If you were an astronaut and noticed a large typhoon on the earth, you could safely say 強烈そうな台風が見えます.

And statistically speaking, I think そう tends to be used with i-adjectives more
often, because observable simple concepts are covered by native Japanese
vocabulary (wago). Kango words are better at describing abstract concepts, but
they are unlikely to be used with そう anyway.
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