Leading up to the Viper..did Shelby do chassis designs that were never used?

I bought a new book by an ex-Shelby employee who worked in Sante Fe Springs when Shelby was building Dodge GLH etc. and he pictures a tube frame that he identifies as Shelby's Viper chassis. But when I went to an auction in Newport Beach some years ago, Rick Cole and marty Yacoobian were saying this spine frame thing (think Mangusta) was the Shelby design for the viper. I gather neither was used but in the book I have on Viper I don't recall it ever saying that Shelby made h is own chassis design first. Does anyone reall a good article on the Viper design prior to Chrysler taking it over (Shelby was at that time going in for a transplant so was absent during most of its later development). The one funny line in the chapter is that when Shelby was talking with Chrysler about which engine to put in it, he stomped off and said "OK I'll go and put a Buick in it."