No question it's tight under the hood but definitely not impossible. My bro-in-law has a '96 TT in Virginia he's selling for $12,000.00 that is cherry. It's plenty quick too.

Things to know:
Eliminating HICAS is a piece of cake. Part costs less than $250.00 but I definitely recommend getting rid of it.
None of the '96s are as good as the '95s due to Nissan knowing they were going to discontinue the car so they didn't spend alot of time or money on the OBDII change in '96. The '95s are faster.
Nissan is a sophisticated manufacturer so know what your doing if you decide to work on it yourself.

Regarding SpecV Scott's comments about grammar and punctuation, he spelled amoung which correctly spelled is among. lmao. I do agree Nissans and Mits are more complicated products so you should be prepared to pay dearly for service.

Good luck.