280z/300zx

I've owned both a touring/sport and a Nismo. Look up a post titled "some input would be great" or something similar. It was only about 2wks back. I did a full assesment on both. Short summary, I prefer my old touring/sport compared to my current NISMO. The NISMO is I believe slightly faster however I don't think magazines have been able to show it as the NISMO is not very easy to launch well due to the stiffer suspension. I think from a rolling start the NISMO would pull on the regular Z but not by a whole lot. The suspension is very stiff for DD. Mod for mod you will not make a NISMO Z out of a Base Z for cheaper. Aside from the extra power the Nismo also has a much tighter suspension. Suspension mods costs money. Also, yes you can make a base Z just as fast or faster than the NISMO but the NISMO will always have the edge unless you get a tune. Getting a tune requires finding a reputable tunner and spending $$$ on the tune and dyno time. Some are lucky to have good tuner near by where others don't. So keep that in mind.

Lastly, on paper the NISMO costs much more than a base sport but in real life you can get a NISMO Z for pretty cheap. The sticker on my NISMO was 45k, I got mine for 35k. It was essentially the same price that a touring sport would have cost me. I think if you shop around you'll find the real price difference between a base sport and a NISMO to only be 2-3k. Which one to get is up to you. They both have pros and cons. In the end you win either way as they are both Z's.