oops!

[Elliott Potter <epotter@abraxis.com>]

I was out driving last night in search of somewhere that would serve me
food at 1:00am.  I was trying to make a U-turn on a narrow side road,
and one front wheel on my 93 90CS slipped off the pavement.  The only
problem was that solid ground was about 5 inches below the pavement, and
the car bottomed out!  I got back on the road no problem (never actually
slowed down) and went to the nearest parking lot to investigate.  There
was no visible damage to anything, except one little thing.  There is a
hefty U-shaped piece of metal right next to the catalytic converter,
pointing downwards:

WARNING WARNING BAD ASCII ART

looking at the underside of the car,

        cat     tranny      cat
   ----\---/-----|---|-----\---/----
   |--|                         |--|
  ^^^^^
piece of metal
in question

now looks like this:
        cat     tranny      cat
   ----\---/-----|---|-----\---/----
   ~--|                         |--|
  ^^^^^

Well, it looks like the piece of metal saved my catalytic converter, but
now it's pretty bent.  What function does this serve?  Should I
definitely get it replaced?  I haven't looked closely enough to get a
part number or see exactly how it's attatched to the bottom of the car
yet.

TIA,

Elliott