Chassis of a motor vehicle optimized for absorbing a frontal impact

Abstract

A chassis of a motor vehicle optimized for absorbing a frontal impact. The chassis includes a firewall separating a passenger compartment of the vehicle from a front portion of the chassis configured to hold an engine, and a mechanism for absorbing a frontal impact including two side rails mounted on at least the front portion of the chassis and arranged on either side of the chassis, each side rail including a front portion and a rear portion assembled to overlap at least partially. The side rails are arranged such that an overlap area is below the plane of the firewall, and the rear portion of the side rail includes a material which is less compressible than the front portion of the side rail.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.