Today’s Z once commemorated Nissan’s 50th year since its founding. Let’s see if this garish but great sports car’s price now is anything worth celebrating.

Manual transmissions are generally less complicated than their automatic brethren, but they’re still a mess of meshing cogs, bearings, and hair’s breadth clearances that when they don’t work can portend expensive and time consuming repairs.

That didn’t matter however when it came to yesterday’s . Yes, it may have had a daunting gearbox woe, but we’re mostly all suckers for old Saabs and hence it walked away with a substantial 70% Nice Price win, the second up-vote of the week.

For a company to celebrate the event of its founding, would that be an Anniversary, or more rightly a birthday? When it came to Nissan it was the former and in 1984 they feted 50 years in the auto business. How does a car maker denote such an auspicious occasion? Why, by tarting up their top model and festooning it with badges marking the event, of course.

That’s how we came to have cars like this , which carries the 50th Anniversary logo on just about every possible surface, and which has been loaded balls-deep with every conceivable option Nissan could pile on a Z31 Z. Even after all that, it still only tips the scales at about 3,000 pounds. Ah yes, the Eighties were a simpler time.

Nissan fixed the Anniversary badge to a number of 300ZX models in ’84, but they only built about 5,000 of the full-tilt boogie editions like this.

That means two-tone paint, one piece of evidence to that honorary status. You also get fat rear fender flares and “turbo” emblazoned rocker extensions like its some sort of Porsche or something.

The interior is all black leather (splitting on the driver’s seat) and digital dashboard, just like you’d expect from the days of future past Eighties. There’s a plethora of chiclet-sized buttons and switches in there, some of which look screwed on as though an afterthought. An aftermarket Alpine stereo with Pioneer speakers brings the tunes on this one. Remember Pioneer?

Under the hood lies the car’s primary weapon, which is Nissan’s 200-horse/227 lb-ft of torque three-litre SOHC turbo V6. That’s backed up by a five-speed stick—and thankfully this one apparently works—which was the only thing optional (manual or automatic) when the car was new. The original buyer of this one chose wisely.

On the outside you get T-tops, so hand washing is probably going to be called for lest they leak. The paint on the 184,000-mile car could be described as good from far but far from good. The decal striping is wearing off the bumpers and there are chips here and there, but meh, it’s not so bad. The stock gold-colored alloy wheels also could stand some attention, but at least they are the stock gold-colored alloy wheels and not some horrific aftermarket option that someone thought was a good idea at the time. Fun fact, it never is. The windshield trim is also in need of some attention.

Out back there’s evidence that the car once carried louvers on its hatch. It’s somewhat disappointing to note their present absence. Perhaps to make up for that, the car comes with its original gold anniversary key.

On the maintenance front, the timing belt was renewed less than a year ago—a good thing as this is an interference engine—and there’s a newish Flowmaster in back. Fresh meats add to the party as do replaced V-belts. Still to be checked off the to-do list are brake pads and rotors (four-wheel discs) but that’s apparently a job for the next owner.

For someone to be that next owner, they’ll need to come up with the seller’s $7,999 asking price. Before you consider that however, have a gander at , and then laugh in its expensive face. Good, now let’s vote on this one.

What’s your opinion of this 50th Anniversary 300ZX and that $7,999 price tag? Does that seem like a deal to get in on the party? Or, does this car’s condition make it a celebration you’ll just have to miss?

You decide!

Portland OR , or go if the ad disappears.

H/T to Earl Junior for the hookup!

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