I've heard that if you have a x-brace installed, in a frontal collision the engine will crush your legs??

 

Yes, but that's the way I like it.

 

This has been discussed many times before on this board. In a frontal collision, the engine doesn't go straight down. It goes down and back. The X-brace is close enough to the front of the engine that I'm not worried about the engine clearing the brace before it goes down that far. Anyways, look at the amount of car that is in front of the engine. It's almost three feet of metal that would have to be crushed before the engine moved at all. If you're that worried about it then maybe you shouldn't put one on, but I prefer the sharper handling and am willing to deal with the 0.0000001% chance that something bad could happen because I have one installed.

 

not only will your legs get crushed but your hair will fall out and you'll go cross-eyed.

unless someone has done a nhtsa-style controlled crash, there is no way to formulate a response.

 

Just wondering..... even though i went ahead and installed it anyways!

 

The X-braces plane of strength is horizontal and would not withstand anywhere near the same force in the vertical direction. Consider the depth of section in the plane that the normal forces are in....Im guessing around 600-700mm. The depth in the vertical plane is more like 20mm.

Think of a plastic straw, if you keep it perfectly straight and apply pressure at either end like so ->------<- then it is relatively strong and will imprint your fingers. However if you apply any pressure at the midpoint of the straw it buckles and fails.

Did you really think that the x brace would withstand the force that is required to rip the engine from its mounts and break through the firewall? That would take some engineering

 

Well said Austblue.

Fusiondynamics, I'd look at it his way, "Could I avoid a life threatening collision because my car handles better with an X-Brace?

 

^ sometimes u have no control over what happens... life threatening or not

 

Interesting debate.

 

It'll collapse like a twig. It isn't nearly strong enough to prevent the engine from collapsing downwards.

Also, it's almost entirely in front of the engine, so it probably doesn't play any kind of role in an accident.

Of course, it MAY strengthen the collapsable structure at the front of the car, which MAY allow the car to absorb more impact in an accident and MAY actually help to save your life.