A few weeks ago, my daughter broke a plastic pin brace and a bulkhead. I had a bulkhead, but no pin brace. The LHS didnt have the part. So I asked a local JC sponsored driver is he had an alum pin brace he could sell me. He told me that he does not use them. I asked why and his response was, "They bend". He said they would tweak a little bit and make the car worse. Then I started looked around at a few other fast AE factory drivers cars and realized they dont use them either. It is mostly a few JC drivers sporting the alum pin brace, mostly for sales I think. I do not think the pin brace or bulkhead are that fragile. In fact my daughter broke 2 arms this weekend, bend a front hinge pin, but did not break the pin brace or bulkhead.