Mini could build a rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive Cooper on a revolutionary platform, if Munich executives would just greenlight this grad-student concept.
Sixteen young engineers at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (ICAR) have created Deep Orange 7?the program’s seventh concept car?one that imagines the Mini Cooper in 2025. Visually, the Deep Orange 7 is much like the Mini Vision Next 100 Concept unveiled during the BMW Group’s centenary in 2016.

But Clemson’s students, working along with design students from California’s ArtCenter College of Design, have designed a modular carbon-fiber body constructed from four major pieces, without a traditional unibody or composite tub. The front and rear subframes incorporate the hood, hatch, and quarter-panels, with the roof and floorpan serving as connecting points that can be redesigned for two-door, four-door, and convertible body styles. Three different-size battery packs can slip beneath the concept’s flat floor without intruding on passenger space.Our favorite, though, is the gasoline-powered rear-engined version with the manual transmission. Clemson wants manuals for the plug-in hybrids, too. Those kids are all right.

The rocker panels do double duty to cool the battery pack. Three coolant pipes run through hollow extruded-aluminum sections on each side, extracting heat without the need for traditional front-mounted radiators. Of course, there are funky featur...