What is this part for?

[Icedawg]

I stripped everything out of the engine bay, and am looking at getting rid of every part I can to lighten the car. I am wondering what the role of the part shown in the pictures below is. It triangulates the frame rail at the fire wall on the driver's side, and has mount points for the fuel filter. But these roles seem somewhat incidental. I am thinking its primary role might be to brace the firewall where the brake pedal and clutch pedal assembly lever against it. Inside the cabin there is a slightly complicated set of heavy plates associated with the pedal frame assembly. Anyone looked at this part and thought it through previously? Do you think I can remove it?

Here it is all dirty brown component in the centre of the picture, below where the brake booster would go if it were installed.

Here is a picture of the brace out of the car, carelessly painted up for re-installation in a white engine bay.

[bravekozak]

That is the fuel filter bracket.
This bolts on it.
Leave it in as a brace.

[Icedawg]

Thanks for the response. As I said in my post, I know it holds the fuel filter, but I have a different way I am holding a B6T filter, so it is not needed for that. What I am wondering is if the tirangulation and firewall bracing is an important part of its role.

[bravekozak]

If you followed the blue links in my post you would have discovered that the slot is a guide for the clutch cable and that a new one from Four Green is about 15 bucks.