BMW E36 road-legal aerodynamic package
An ongoing project developing a full aerodynamic package for a BMW E36 Compact (1996), combining reverse engineering, CAD, CFD and regulatory compliance within a real vehicle application.
Reverse engineering
The project involves reconstructing the vehicle geometry in CATIA V5 from STL data, enabling the parametric design of aerodynamic components for performance improvement on a body that was never designed with aerodynamic development in mind.
/assets/img/projects/e36-geometry.pngConstraints
The design process considers road-legal constraints under Spanish vehicle regulations, integrating aerodynamic performance targets with homologation requirements. This is the defining difference from a racing project: the regulation set is not a performance envelope to exploit but a compliance boundary.
Planned workflow
The planned workflow includes CFD simulations for performance assessment, followed by wind tunnel validation and eventual manufacturing of components in carbon fibre and epoxy through hand lay-up for real-world implementation.