Steve,
I dont have a BN7, I have a BJ7 the same as Peter, not sure if that makes a difference.
I have the straight brace in your picture above and as I indicated in my post in my car this is in place and goes from the dash to the firewall.
The bent bracket is absolutely factory in my BJ7 and looks exactly the same as Peter’s bracket. When I got my car a few decades ago it was an all original, untouched LHD BJ7 and the bracket was installed. The reason I knew what the bracket was immediately when I saw Peter’s pictures is because I recently converted the car to RHD and when I moved the steering across, the brackets all transposed as well. Amazingly, they all fitted perfectly on the RHD side as well and matched to the factory holes, including the factory bent bracket.
Noting the bracket is up towards the steering wheel end of the column brace, it could have been designed with a bend to give more knee room and/or to allow easier access to the instruments and wiring look behind the gauges. It is certainly a solid bracket which does not bend easily if at all from its current shape. Looking at the design and recalling my RHD conversion, the lateral movement of the steering column and brace at the dash is constrained by the very solid steering column end bracket which bolts to the dash/scuttle and the steering column bracket. This bent piece is more of a “steady” than a brace or bracket.
I confirmed the bend visually last night and will have a go tonight to get a picture and post it (noting the mirror opposite configuration of my now RHD BJ7).
Cheers
Tony