It could all be a load of crap.....I just went to this little siminar once and they touched on it briefly. How some of the cars are designed to get the engine away from the driver in a wreck...but thats mostly tops and funny car I think. It was a long time ago

 

The added space would be nice while working on the car. I'll only be running an alternator and crankcase evac pump, but w/ the blower mounting I'm planning on, packaging could be tight. The possibility of taking the motor in and out of the car w/o removing the trans is appealing, too.

 

First benefit is for clearance. The second benefit is for custom engine location. My engine is dropped down and back slightly. That's easy to do with a motor plate and very difficult to do with side engine mounts.

Because everything is solid, my alternator is mounted to the plate and the adjuster arm is mounted to the frame rail. Actually, I have my alternator mounted backwards for clearance because I can't tuck it beside the block because of the motor plate.