OK, I posted this with badly scaled images despite my best intentions so the paragraph below is not true. I've rescaled the images to make them more accurate but my original point about the Elise comparison is invalid - sorry all!

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If, like me, you haven't seen an RX-8 for real then these size comparison images that I created might interest you. The three cars have 18" rims so the scales are spot on. The Lotus Elise is a tiny car and therefore so is the RX-8. Deceptive isn't it!

 

Well, the 8 is 5" longer (in total) then the 350Z. Your pic has the Z actualy being longer.... I'd say there is a slight problem.

 

Are you sure on the Lotus too? I've seen both cars in person, and that looks like a monster Elise to me. The rims on the Elise look slightly larger than the rims on the 8, as well....Here's a link to a picture I took of an Elise in Edinburgh: Elise

I suppose it could be true- I don't have any way to look up the Elise specifiations from work at the moment.

And as ToRX-8orToZ said, the 8 is slightly larger than the Z...so perhaps perspectives on these cars is a little different? That would be enough to throw off the size difference.

 

Ooops!!!

No, you're both right. My cunning plan to exactly match the size of the wheel rims and thereby the car scales went sadly awry. I looked up the real dimensions and I've changed the images accordingly. It's a bit approximate but I think OK. Sorry.

 

Remind me not to try this again...

 

Standard rims on the Elise are 15", I can guarantee that because I park next to one at work, and I also have 15" rims on my MX-5.

I doubt 18" wheels would even fit in the arches of an Elise, they're tiny and very low-slung.

 

Hey, it was a great attempt- and since you fixed it, we can see what they really look like in the correct perspective

 

an elise is very small and would not fit 18" rims... a person that works in the same building as myself has a blue one, and that thing is tiny....

 

Yes, you're right. That was my fundamental error with this process and I'm still not quite sure where the idea came from...