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2014 Honda Odyssey first minivan to earn Top Safety Pick+ award [w/video]

You know an automaker is confident about the safety of its vehicles when it asks one of the top crash test agencies to destroy one of its newest models. That's exactly what happened with the 2014 Honda Odyssey. According the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Honda requested that the agency run the updated Odyssey through its full barrage of tests, and for good reason.
Aside from slight styling upgrades and a new optional HondaVac built-in vacuum cleaner, the 2014 Odyssey was also given a more rigid passenger compartment using high-strength steel to help better protect occupants. It obviously worked. Following the crash tests, the 2014 Odyssey became the first minivan to earn a Top Safety Pick+ rating, but, more importantly, it did so with "Good" ratings in all five crash categories (four "Goods" and one "Acceptable" are enough for the TSP+). Impressive.
Scroll down for the crash-test video from the IIHS along with a press release.

Honda Civic Tourer caught testing ahead of 2014 launch

Honda showed off its Civic Tourer concept at the Geneva Motor Show in March, and at that time, we were told that a production version would be coming to market in the very near future. Obviously, the sleek lines of the concept car will be dumbed down slightly for consumers, but that doesn't mean the Civic wagon will be a bland machine. The Euro-spec Civic's angular front end looks like it will blend nicely with the rakish rump that we saw on the concept.
Our sources suggest that not only will the Civic Tourer be a class-leader in terms of cargo capacity, but it will likely be a pretty engaging car from behind the wheel, as well. Honda is hoping that the Tourer will account for roughly 20 percent of all European Civic sales after it goes on sale.
Expect to see the production car debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show this September, with the first customers taking delivery in early 2014. In the meantime, have a look at the camouflaged swoopy wagon from all angles in our gallery above.

Honda getting in on the Daytona Prototype racing action

Racing fans at Sebring are plenty used to seeing Honda powering into the winner's circle, the Japanese motor company having claimed class victories at the endurance race in Florida in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Those were all in the LMP2 category, but with the Twelve Hours of Sebring now part of the combined United SportsCar Championship, Honda is branching out into another class: Daytona Prototypes.
The purpose-built racing machinery that were once part of the Grand-Am series are now racing alongside the LMP2 prototypes from the American Le Mans Series under the united championship. So far Ford and Chevy have signed on to power the Daytona Prototypes, and now Honda's joining their ranks as the only manufacturer to field entries in both categories of the championship's Prototype class.
The competition-spec 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 revealed last month is based on the same J35 engine that powers everything from the Honda Accord to the Acura RLX and MDX. Now it will power the Riley chassis fielded by Starworks Motorsports, competing alongside the pair of Honda Performance Development (HPD) ARX-03b chassis which Extreme Speed Motorsports will campaign under LMP2 regulations, giving Honda a two-pronged, three-car assault on the top class of the new American sports car racing series.