The plastic chassis braces are becoming common now. My X-Ray is the same. The reason they give is that it allows the chassis to flex just a little, which is part of the way the modern light weight buggies get their good handling characteristics. X-Ray make alloy braces for those that want them, but I have heard on the forums that they make the cars too rigid and they become a little skitterish with the handling suffering as a result. Most of the guys went back to the plastic braces (which are pretty strong anyway). If you break one of those you will probably have a lot more serious bits broken to worry about Buggy looks good bro