Muhammad Ali's famous 1976 Alfa Rome Spider Veloce Series II - the car he did not even set out to buy -  has gone up for sale on eBay for the knock-down Buy It Now price of $39,900 OBO.

The listing, found by Silodrome, has been put up by Moto Exotica of St Louis, Missouri and, according to the sellers, has an interesting back story featured in the book Running with the Champ.

Per Ali's close personal friend and car guy Tim Shanahan (who wrote the book), they went to a dealership to purchase a new Rolls-Royce - Ali was a sucker for the Rolls-Royce, apparently - while the legendary boxer lived in Chicago.

The pair headed to European Imports in Lake Forest, Illinois, in the hopes of getting a Kelly Green Corniche and possibly a Mercedes-Benz SL for Veronica Porché, Ali's wife.

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via autoblog.com

When they got to the dealership, though, Ali was disappointed to learn that there were no SLs so the Alfa Romeo was suggested as an alternative. Ali ended up buying the thing but upon getting home, he was hit by another unforeseen hiccup. Veronica did not know how to drive the car's stick shift and couldn't be bothered to learn how.

As a result, the car mostly sat around unless one of his assistants drove it on an errand on a rare occasion.

As luck would have it, for Shanahan, his car broke down and Ali would gift him the car shortly after its purchase, which he owned for more than 40 years before selling it to Moto Exotica.

This Alfa is actually still in great shape. It's been driven for around 80,000 miles and has a bit of wear and tear here and there, inclusive of a small crack on the dashboard. It's also been resprayed recently.

The best part about buying this car should be the original registration, which bears the champ's signature. Documentation also includes a "copy of photos of Ali with the car and Tim Shanahan, photo of Jay Leno with the car, Ali’s book, Running with the Champ and assorted paperwork".

You could check all of the photos and complete listing out at Motoexotica.com.