What was the Toyota Harrier Zagato?

I traveled to Ohio to drive the only Toyota Harrier Zagato in the United States, and to uncover some of the hidden history behind this car.

0:00 Opening
0:39 Intro and Driving
2:40 History of Zagato
3:39 History of Modellista
4:09 Development
5:37 Missing History
7:18 Another Harrier Zagato
8:08 Impact of RX300
10:21 Reflecting
11:09 Outro

Sources:
‘Zagato 1990-2000’ by Joanne Marshall, ©2000 Giorgio Nada Editore, Vimodrone (MI)

Alfa Romeo Archive
Lexus USA Newsroom
Toyota Global Newsroom
Land Rover USA
Stellantis Newsroom
BMW Group PressClub Global
Mercedes-Benz USA Online Newsroom

‘The Simpsons’ was created by Matt Groening and is owned by 20th Television Animation (The Walt Disney Company)
‘Homer the Moe’ (Season 13, Episode 3)

Prevue Channel (1997): Network IDs Joseph A. Sobora (JoeCool85)

Photo by Andrej Lišakov on Unsplash
Photo by Marjan Blan on Unsplash

Additional Image sources:
Ypy31, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Some stuff used in this video (commissions earned):

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[capturingthemachine]

Norihiko Harada, Chief Designer at Zagato, confirmed that he worked on the Harrier Zagato extensively, and drew the design sketches shown in the video. 

[inboundmotorsports]

Thank you for making this video, we imported this car for a great client earlier this year!

[GreatistheWorld]

I like how you somehow built a plausible case that this weird car was a quiet turning point & founding chapter for the modern automotive landscape. Shame on Zagato for erasing Harrier Zagato heritage!

[TyeMorrisVlog]

Zagato also did another Lexus, IIRC. I believe they did an Altezza/IS 200.
I personally love the Harrier Zagato ( i like the earlier iteration the best), and I would love to get my hands on one someday.

[AnalogDave]

Patiently waiting for the Zagato Stelvio followup.

[davem]

I know the owner of that car and know where the video was shot. Now I'm curious enough that I may have to drive over and see it. Thanks for sharing

[mrbrakelol]

Great video. I love the original one I think it's rad

[woortmanyup]

What a cool story; I saw your post on Instagram and had no clue what I was looking at, I would've never guessed in a million years it was an RX300 in a very nice designer Italian suit.

[SmallBlogV]

Me: [can't stand crossovers] Also Me: "Wow that looks brilliant!" Albeit a little under-wheeled by today's standards and really lifted by its colour scheme.
I don't think I knew about this car at all before seeing the thumbnail, unless I'm forgetting a past bit of Weird Car Twitter. To me, though, it's like a final hold-out from the Bubble Era mentality of allowing themselves to do something truly expressive and frivolous for its own sake, or to prove that they can. Japan used to do 'boutique versions' of all sorts of mainstream models but it's become vanishingly rare now (aftermarket notwithstanding). Even if I admire the spirit more than the car itself, I'm still glad to know about it now.

[thejash]

Cracking Video. I just bought a white one today...

[e]

Not my taste what so ever, but love the uniqueness

[doppahead]

my current taste is all about 2-door and 3-door cars which are getting rare these days like some sedans, hatchbacks, wagons, suv, GT, Coupe, etc and some convertibles and targa... my previous self is all about coachbuilt and carrozzerias.... no, not about driving experience, just some theoretical, historical knowledge plus some cheap scale model collections

[unlearningcommunism]

Speaking of oddities and "aero kits"... Maybe someone wants to import an odd car. There is (probably) unknown version of Yugo that was never exported to the US. It's called Yugo In and it was designed by Marc Deschamps and it has Peugeot engine with almost 100 hp. Besides Yugo, we also had something called Florida (and Florida In) that looks like a Citroen from the 90's and the pick-up version of that thing named Poly.

[gambya]

This was a brilliant analysis of a very strange vehicle I knew nothing about.

I love how deep of a dive you took.

It's incredible only in its rarity and oddity.