The BMW X4 sacrifices space and usability to a plunging roofline and aggressive looks, and BMW thinks there’s a market for an SUV like that. However, Clemson University students have a better compromise.

Even though the Deep Orange 4 looks like a BMW X4, it actually started life as its mechanical twin, the X3. Students with Clemson’s International Center for Automotive Research teamed with BMW for this design.

A team took an X3 and cut the back of it off to make a fast roofline not unlike the X4’s. But instead of that car’s liftback, Deep Orange 4 has a sliding rear window that glides over the roof of the vehicle. And then powered split barn doors pop open to reveal the loading area.

The look when all of this is open is not unlike the GMC Envoy XUV of the early 2000s, and the Studebaker Wagonaire before that – both of which had sliding roofs over the cargo area so they’d be able to transport tall items vertically. Like, um, big clocks.

Now the X4 is ridiculous, but in a good way.

By Zac Estrada

Photo Gallery

VIDEO