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2017 Frankfurt Motor Show | Observations on the Ferrari Portofino, Honda Urban EV and more

Related: We obsessively covered the Frankfurt Motor Show — here's our complete coverage The 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show kicked off the fall reveal season with an impressive array of powerful cars blended with forward-looking concepts. It's a seminal period for automakers, who find themselves at the intersection of disruption and opportunity. With that in mind, here are four takeaways from Frankfurt. The transformation of the curvy yet overbaked Ferrari California T into the Portofino is complete, and its coming-out party in Frankfurt served notice that Ferrari's entry-level sports car is much more formidable. There was nothing wrong with the California (and later the California T), but the Portofino features a cleaner look with stronger lines and an elegant resemblance to the rest of the Ferrari family. The California name is a good one. Used on a number of memorable cars in the 1950s and '60s, it's steeped in tradition, and certainly Ferrari will dust it off again. But switching to Portofino, the name of a scenic town in Italy, is a nice way to change the conversation and generate fresh interest in this part of the Ferrari portfolio. Man, people are stoked over the Honda Urban EV concept. Why? I assume it's the retro look that harks back to early Civics, and the lack of information about the concept itself. What people don't know, they're imagining. Honda hasn't even confirmed the range, the car is very small, and it likely won't be sold in the United States. With this dearth of facts, enthusiasts are filling in their own blanks. I guess that's OK. Count me among the intrigued. When I saw pictures of this thing early Tuesday morning, I was pretty excited, too. We do know Honda is expanding its electric strategy, and two-thirds of its new vehicles sold around the world will have some form of electrification by 2030. The Urban EV launches in Europe in 2019, and a hybrid CR-V rolls out in Europe next year. Unconfirmed for the U.S. market, it seems like a no-brainer to bring that version of the CR-V here. The electrification and autonomous tech parade of concepts continues. You gotta be there. It's the cost of doing business in the modern automotive landscape. This technology takes years to develop and launch, so the next best thing to remind the world you're trying to be cutting-edge is to show off lots of fancy concepts. Frankfurt had plenty. A couple standouts: The BMW I Vision Dynamics and Audi's Elaine and Aicon.

Five bikes from EICMA you need to know about

Each and every year, the world's biggest motorcycle manufacturers gather together in Milan, Italy to show off the latest and greatest machinery that will soon be offered to dealerships the world over. It's called EICMA (Esposizione Internazionale Ciclo Motociclo e Accessori), and this year's crop of new motorcycles is just as exciting as ever.
We've selected five of the coolest motorcycles shown at this week's show, including models from Aprilia, BMW, Ducati, Honda and Yamaha. Join us down below for a high-performance, two-wheeled Italian journey.

Next BMW 4 Series convertible may ditch folding hardtop

In 2007 the E93 BMW 3 Series convertible switched from a fabric roof to a folding hardtop, but reports out of Germany and BMW say that the next-generation 4 Series convertible will go back to a fabric roof. AutoBild disclosed that nugget last month, now BMW Blog says a BMW source told their sister German publication BimmerToday that it's official and "a decision has already been made." The official car of pro tennis clubs around the world, the droptop 4 Series isn't due in dealers until 2020 or 2021 so one would think there remains some leeway about the top. However, teams of designers are working on the new car right now, so it's entirely possible that a design course is fixed. From the time that the model made the switch, fabric roofs have got so good that there is barely, if any, penalty for using them. It's supposed the change is being made to save weight and free up space. The next 4 Series range is aiming for a lot more sportiness, so on top of its CLAR (cluster architecture) body, it's expected to get active steering, adjustable dampers and anti-roll bars, bigger brakes, and brake-based torque vectoring. Detail improvements like reduced-friction wheel bearings, and faster torque transfer for its all-wheel-drive system are on the long list of upgrades. So too are aluminum and carbon fiber wheels, which will likely be developments based on the carbon wheels BMW showed off last year. Driver assistance options will be legion, with remote-controlled parking, semi-autonomous driving up to 40 mph, and hands-free overtaking perhaps among them.