Motor vehicle having sound-suppressing engine enclosure

Claim 1

A motor vehicle comprising a water cooled internal combustion engine and a gearbox, said gearbox being connected to the engine to form an engine-gearbox unit, a fan-cooled water radiator, a chassis frame with two subframe beams, said engine-gearbox unit being supported on the two subframe beams via elastic bearing elements, a vehicle body connected to said chassis frame and having an engine compartment and a passenger compartment, two wheel arches forming lateral walls of the engine compartment and being connected to said subframe beams, an engine hood forming an upper wall of the engine compartment, a partition separating the engine compartment from the passenger compartment and forming a rear end wall of the engine compartment, a frontal end wall extending transversal relative to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle between the said two wheel arches, two upright lateral walls, each of them extending from one of the wheel arches upwards to the engine hood, said rear and frontal end walls being connected to said lateral walls, a bottom cover plate forming a bottom end wall of the engine compartment, said cover plate being connected to the subframe beams and the frontal end wall, said wheel arches, upright lateral walls, frontal and rear endwalls, and the bottom end wall forming together with the two subframe beams and the engine hood an all around fully closed soundproof encapsulation, the engine-gearbox unit being arranged within said encapsulation, said water radiator and its fan being located outside and in front of the said soundproof encapsulation.