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Honda Civic Tourer... now with bikes!

Honda is rolling in to the Frankfurt Motor Show this year with a version of its Civic Tourer wagon. Called the Active Life concept, the modified Euro-market estate is outfitted specifically for cyclists. To that end, the Japanese automaker has equipped the show wagon with a rack capable of holding a pair of full-size bicycles – not on the roof, where you'd expect them to be, but inside the vehicle. With the rear seats folded down, and thanks in no small part to innovative fuel tank placement, the Civic wagon can swallow nearly 60 cubic feet – several more than the Ford Focus estate, for example, albeit less than the VW Golf Variant. The Honda Civic Tourer Active Life Concept is also equipped with a retractable arm for bicycle maintenance, a built-in air pump, a retractable bench, and toolbox, water tank, and front wheel holder integrated into the side of the trunk. There's a sleek box on the roof for accessories, too. And it's all capped by a special blue paint job with metallic gradation, silver roof, custom rear bumper, 18-inch alloys, and a customized interior with blue stitching, black headliner, and suede and leather trim. It'll be displayed alongside the Civic Tourer that recently set a world record for fuel efficiency. The bigger news, however, will be the presentation of the all-new Civic sedan. In short, there'll be plenty of Civic action to check out at the Frankfurt Messe this year, and we'll be on hand to catch it all. But in the meantime you can scope out this concept right here.Related Video: HONDA TO SHOWCASE THE CIVIC TOURER ACTIVE LIFE CONCEPT AT 2015 FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW - Civic Tourer Active Life Concept makes its debut - GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title-holding Civic Tourer 1.6 i-DTEC on display on Honda stand Honda will reveal the Civic Tourer "Active Life Concept" at this year's Frankfurt Motor Show, underlining the Tourer's class leading cargo space and versatility within the C-segment. The Concept study shows that style and space can work together; a custom paint colour further enhances the sleek and sporty exterior and an accessorised interior demonstrates the Concept's suitability for an active lifestyle and the needs of its customers. Utilising the unique centre fuel tank layout, the Civic Tourer Active Life Concept makes full use of its 1668 litres* trunk space and a low loading height.

In 2014, living with a hydrogen car is fun, challenging

Read his lips: more hydrogen stations, please. That's the crux of the commentary from a Southern California gentleman who's been tooling around in a Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle since 2005. Jon Spallino, the first "retail customer" to lease the Clarity, tells The Wall Street Journal that he enjoys "everything about the car," including the peppy acceleration from the car's electric powertrain. The added bonus, of course, is the fact that the car's emissions are nothing more than water vapor. He pays $600 a month to lease the car, including the hydrogen refueling costs, and says he can go about 230 miles on a full tank. The flipside is the paucity in hydrogen refueling stations, which is understandable considering that they cost an estimated couple million dollars a pop to open. It's no accident that Spallino is one of the early hydrogen drivers, though, since there are eight public refueling stations in Southern California (and one in Northern California), more than any other state, according to US Department of Energy records. The only other public station is in South Carolina, so road trips are tough. Spallino, a resident of Redondo Beach, joins higher-profile folks such as actress Jamie Lee Curtis and former pro hockey player Scott Niedermayer among those who've gotten the opportunity to lease the super-low-volume fuel-cell vehicle. How low? Honda leased out 10 of them last year and just five in 2012. You can read more of Spallino's hydrogen-powered thoughts here.

Watch the latest Civic Type R hit the track in Japan

The latest Honda Civic Type R is very sweet forbidden fruit because the launch of the new generation Civic in the US suggests that the 306-horsepower turbocharged hot hatch might not arrive on this continent in its current form. However, the next one should come here and could have an even more powerful version of the Ohio-made 2.0-liter engine. While North American buyers wait, Best Motoring host Keiichi Tsuchiya slips behind the Type R's wheel in this video to show us what we're missing. After the Drift King's drive, the CTR looks a little rotten. Tsuchiya seems to fight understeer from the moment he hits the first corner of the very tight Nikko Circuit, and it doesn't appear to let up over his couple of laps. Unfortunately, this clip doesn't have English subtitles, so we can only draw conclusions from Tsuchiya's driving – unless you understand Japanese. There could be a few explanations for the Civic Type R's performance in this video. There's still snow on the ground, so the performance tires could have trouble with grip in the cold. The track's layout also doesn't provide much opportunity to open the throttle. The tight corners really tax a vehicle's handling, and the hot hatch's front-wheel drive lap record at the Nurburgring suggests the Type R might prefer a quicker track. We also remarked on understeer during our First Drive, but it wasn't this bad. If you're unfamiliar with Best Motoring and Tsuchiya, you're missing out. The show puts racing drivers into mostly Japanese performance cars and lets them offer their driving impressions. Tsuchiya is the star and quite an accomplished racer, one of the drivers who took a class win in a Honda NSX in the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans. If you've missed out on these clips, prepare to waste a weekend watching the series on its YouTube channel. Related Video: