Patent ID: 8128156

Claim:
A motor vehicle, comprising: an interior passenger compartment including a passenger floor board; an engine bay; and a bulkhead partition spanning the width of said vehicle and configured to define said engine bay in front of said bulkhead and said passenger compartment behind said bulkhead, said bulkhead partition being constructed of high stiffness and rigidity to protect said passenger compartment during a frontal collision; said bulkhead partition comprising, in a vertical-plane cross-sectional view taken along the longitudinal axis of said vehicle, a lower bulkhead section extending perpendicularly upward from said floor board, and an upper bulkhead section extending upwardly and forwardly from said lower bulkhead section said upper and lower bulkhead sections being joined together at a first bulkhead interface surface; wherein the entirety of said upper bulkhead section extends upwardly and forwardly from said first bulkhead interface surface towards the front of the motor vehicle such that no portion of said upper bulkhead section extends rearwardly of said first bulkhead interface surface, said upper bulkhead extending upwardly in a forward-arched manner to form a window support for a windshield; wherein said upper bulkhead section further comprises a fresh air opening configured to direct fresh air into said interior passenger compartment.