Thanks for pointing those cars out.
I guess I should state something, I've modified cars in the past, but have kind of gotten tired of doing it. Whatever I buy will remain pretty much stock. An intake and/or exhaust is the extent of what interests me.
Also, I've read a couple of the "is the Nismo worth it or not" threads, it sounds like many buy the Nismo primarily for the looks, and less so for the performance. I'm the opposite, my main interest is performance. I've never met a suspension setup that was too harsh.
In the past I had an RX-8 GT and an RX-8 R3, the R3's setup was so much better. Much harsher ride, but amazing in the turns. Just not enough torque. I guess I'm wondering if there's a similar difference between the base Z and the Nismo. I've driven both, but not back to back. With several months between test drives, it's kind of hard to make a good comparison.
Pic of my old R3:
