Underbody / noise protection

Hello dear V8 fans,

First of all a big "hello" to all of you...and a huge compliment for this website. She's really great.

I've been a V8 driver for about half a year, the car is a family heirloom. A huge stroke of luck that my 82-year-old grand aunt decided last year to hang the car after 58000 km V8 ;-) Although I had come to the car so unexpectedly, of course I held him in honor...I would never have dreamed to call such a miracle of the technique my own so quickly. Ahh, that sound. But who am I telling this to :-))

I have the following question: yesterday, at a relatively high speed (see, the 7-man had provoked me) a large part of the underbody said goodbye to me. More specifically, it was a cover under the engine compartment. It must have been attached to four screws before. I suspect that the front screws have loosened, so that the wind could reach under the cover, which was then bent backwards and broke through in the middle. Anyway, half of the part was still attached to the rear screws.
I removed the rest of it, as it cut down on the ground from 40 km/h with a hell of noise (and I thought first of all, people all turn around because of the great V8: "Look, Erna, I always wanted one of those!" :-)

Now to the core of the poodle: how urgently do you see the need for action regarding a replacement for this part? Is it necessary as underbody protection, especially with regard to splash water etc.? Or does it have a pure noise protection function (as the label suggests) and is not really urgently needed??

Would be very grateful for your opinions...and possibly. also for tips where I can find this part as a replacement!!

Thank you in advance, good ride and see you soon,
Jan

PS: The car is a 1989 3.6.