haven't heard about the 20v guy, show me a link please. I'm going to tie the lower chassis together where the lower control arms mount, and have a strut tower brace that will tie in the firewall also. As for bending I really don't know. At least I'm honest!
In all seriousness though,the torque will be distributed through the CV axles. The only real pulling should be an effort to twist the engine/trans. I have a bar that mounts front to rear similar to the celica setup. 2 motor mounts on it and the bar is made of twin square tube steel rails attached every 6". I can't see that bending very easily myself. The front of the bar mounts under the radiator and since that metal was so thin I reinforced there also. Eventually I'll create some type of polyurethane mounts that I'll be happier with.
Frame bracing and tube frames come into play on a RWD setup. There is so much between what produces the power and what puts the power to the ground. The rear axle wants to twist in 2 directions and the engine/trans want to twist in another 2 directions. See the problem? The rear spring mounts have to be solid. On our cars the rear axle just holds the bumper off the ground basically. (I realize it can't be soft before the flaming starts here) So therefore there's not a lot of torque absorbed by our cars.
There will however be a much stronger pull on the front to squeeze together underneath. As the front tires attemp to launch they are held back by the bearings and hubs to move the small weight. That is the main purpose I feel the need to tie the underside together.
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