I did the vantage thing and as a toy you can't get better. They are absolutely gorgeous, sound ridiculous and are great to drive around in. Downsides; not actually that great a performer in terms of out and out performance, interior build quality wasn't amazing (squeaky rear suspension), engine light kept coming on, satnav was poor, key was the same as a ford mondeo (a minor thing but it bugged me). My current 996 albeit far from standard, and even the z4m wiped the floor with it. But everywhere I went people wanted to take photos, I never tired of driving it.
I put a deposit on a GTR and was days away from taking it and then didn't. A set of pads, discs and tyres would polish off $10k. It wouldn't stay standard so the mod budget would be big and at the time at $130k I couldnt decide if it was value or not.. But the performance was beyond laughable on the road. I drove one back to back with a v8 R8 around the track and it was no contest. I didn't gel with the r8, felt a little cramped. BUT.. you park it, you walk away and you feel like you always have to qualify it with ''It's a nissan.. BUT..''. It felt very nissan inside, which isn't a bad thing, but you could have been in a 350 or a maxima almost. It's a great car, but it doesn't feel exotic whereas the vantage feels the epitome of exotic..
Which is annoying, because I still find myself trying to talk myself out of one next. But I know driving one, I'd see the likes of a fast porsche, 360, AM and would wish I had one.