Rarely do car and bicycle come together so well as in this fantastic Civic Tourer concept car from Honda. Due to be unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show in a few weeks' time, the Tourer uses a unique central fuel tank layout that allows for secure and well organised storage of two bikes plus plenty of other clever, cycle-focused integrations.
Pop the hatchback of the two seater Tourer and, along with facing a cavernous 1,668 litres of space, there's an extra low loading height for which to utilise a built-in double bike rack. A retractable arm can then be extended from the rack, forming a makeshift workstand for mechanical duties – a section of the tailgate can even be pulled out to provide shade cover when doing so.
Further occupying the void where you'd usually find back seats are an integrated pump, a retractable bench and a toolbox. The immense storage doesn't stop inside the vehicle either, with Honda also including an aero roof box to accommodate further luggage.
The Tourer concept utilises space gained by moving to a unique central fuel tank layout
Even the truest of tree huggers will find it hard to knock the Honda for its efficiency too – the production Civic Tourer fitted with Honda's i-DTEC 1.6l diesel engine just picked up a Guiness World Records title for its fuel efficiency, achieving 100.31mpg (2.82l/km) over an 8,387 mile (13,498km) drive across 24 European countries.
Like many concepts, we expect most of the features of this car won't make it to production – but it's nice to see Honda putting effort into such things. In other news, the Wiggle/Honda pro cycling team has just found its perfect team car…
