Old rumor dept. Did CS' own automatic 289 figure in 1966 purchase of facility for AAR

[Historybuff]

I was reading a forum entry in a website called Autosport by Chuck Jones who said he sold an 8000 sq. ft. racing shop to Dan Gurney in '66 to AAR. (which according to other sources started in '64 but maybe in smaller shops) Anyhow the Cobra part of it was that Shelby was supposed to be at the meeting but was late but when he arrived the negotiations were almost complete and Jones said to Shelby (I am paraphrasing)"If you throw in that Cobra you arrived in, it's a deal." and he did. Good story but the one thing that didn't jive with what I've read before is that there were a lot more than two small block Cobras fitted with automatics and Jones says there were only two but maybe it was just two at that time. I was wondering if anybody ever heard that story?

Also when Gurney had later success with AAR, between '66 and '70 (especially in '68) , why is it you don't see mention in books or articles of Shelby being on the scene with Dan to accept congrats? Maybe Shelby was far from an equal partner, just an investor...but anyhow like to hear opinions on Shelby and AAR's beginning and about that automatic Cobra