It's well out of my price range, but there is a pretty rare copy of American Racer on eBay right now.

Most serious enthusiasts are familiar with Steve Wright's first two books, American Racer 1900-1940 and American Racer 1940-1980. Published in 1986, the original print runs of the books are both amazingly rare and renown for their depth and quality.

I seem to recall that Wright published the books himself originally and in very small quantities in the mid-1980s. After that, Motorbooks became involved and published both books in larger numbers (any of the original printing books are rare).

I was at Daytona in 1987 and remember seeing Wright's books on display at the convention center. He had a limited number of the original self-published books on hand there which featured a different cover and also featured autographs by many of the racing stars from the 1950s to the 1980s. A very cool book then and now but the then price of $50 scared me off.

I've never seen another copy of any of the autographed, self-published versions of the books since that day in 1987.

Former AMA VP of Competition, Merrill Vanderslice, helped Wright when he restored the TZ700 that Roberts won Indy with in 1974. As a gesture of thanks, Wright gave Vanderslice one of the original books, autographs and all.

I have no idea what this book is worth. What I do know is that I own a lot of books, buy a lot of books and read a lot of motorcycle books and I have not seen an autograph version of American Racer in over twenty years.

Many of the autographs in the original book cannot be replicated now as the riders have passed away.

The EBay auction is here.