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New cars / TDCN ORIGINAL

Pagani completes Huayra 70 trilogy with diamond-dust Anima one-off

The third and final birthday Huayra made its debut in Las Vegas, pairing exposed carbon with a seven-speed manual and an unconfirmed power figure.

Image: Motor1

Pagani has revealed the Huayra 70 Anima, the third and final one-off in the Huayra 70 trilogy, at the Concours at Wynn Las Vegas on October 31, 2026. The car completes a three-year series that Horacio Pagani commissioned around his own milestone birthday.

All three Huayra 70 cars, the Anima, the Trionfo and the Derecho, appeared together in public for the first time at the Las Vegas event. Pagani has not yet said when or where the Anima will make its first European appearance.

A trilogy bookended by a birthday

The Anima's name translates from Italian as "soul," and Pagani describes the car as the soul of its Atelier given physical form. Horacio Pagani unveiled it himself in Las Vegas, ten days before his 71st birthday on November 10.

The series began with the Huayra 70 Trionfo, a commission for the Barchetta Collection bound for Cincinnati, Ohio, and continued with the Huayra 70 Derecho, which premiered at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July 2026. The Las Vegas concours is the first confirmed public event at which all three have stood side by side.

The Huayra nameplate is still headlining reveals four years after the Utopia arrived in 2022, a run that special editions keep extending. For a buyer, that matters less as a shopping decision than as a marker of how Pagani manages its back catalogue: the one-offs extend the life of an older platform rather than replace it.

Diamond dust, platinum leaf and six exhaust pipes

The Anima is the most extreme of the three visually. It combines exposed carbon fibre with a Custom Metallic finish infused with diamond dust, striped in platinum leaf and detailed in Inky Blue, over a structure built from carbon fibre and aluminium.

Its aerodynamic package goes further than its siblings', with a tall intake and fin behind the cockpit, individual roll hoops, a fixed rear wing, a large diffuser and vented rear sections. A bespoke six-pipe exhaust finished in white ceramic sits at the rear, visible evidence of the twin-turbo V12 ahead of it.

Inside, white upholstery is matched with blue accents, exposed machined metal and Pagani's intricate switchgear. The layout follows the arrangement Pagani first used on the 2024 Huayra Epitome, with a seven-speed manual gearbox, and the Anima leaves its shift linkage exposed alongside three pedals.

Power and price still under wraps

Pagani has not confirmed the Anima's power output. The Epitome's twin-turbo 6.0-litre V12, built by Mercedes-AMG, is officially rated at 852 horsepower and 1,100 newton-metres of torque, and those figures are widely attached to the Derecho.

No specific figure has been published for the Anima, and Pagani has not given a torque figure in pound-feet. Pricing has not been disclosed either, in keeping with how the company handles its one-off commissions.

The manual gearbox is the detail that separates this trilogy from the rest of the Huayra line, and it is the one most likely to define how the cars are remembered. A seven-speed stick in a V12 hypercar of this era is a deliberate anachronism, and Pagani has now built it into three consecutive one-offs rather than a single showpiece.

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Australia / TDCN ORIGINAL

Toyota HiLux GR Sport to return in 2027, South African boss says

The flagship off-road ute is confirmed for a 2027 return in South Africa, but Toyota Australia has not yet locked in the variant for local showrooms.

Toyota will bring back a HiLux GR Sport in 2027, with the head of Toyota South Africa confirming the flagship off-road variant is on the way. Andrew Kirby told Cars.co.za that "next year sometime" there would be "an exciting product", adding "that's about all I can say".

The confirmation revives a badge that has been absent from the new-generation HiLux line-up. The ninth-generation ute launched in Australia in December 2025 without the GR Sport, leaving the Rogue and Rugged X diesel variants at the top of the local range at $71,990 before on-road costs.

What Kirby said, and what he did not

Kirby's comments, reported by Cars.co.za, are the only official confirmation of the model so far, and they are deliberately thin. He gave a rough timing of 2027 and described the vehicle only as "an exciting product". Toyota has not published power, torque, suspension specification, pricing or a launch date for the new GR Sport.

The previous GR Sport was a serious piece of kit rather than a sticker pack. The Australian version arrived in 2023, inspired by Toyota's Dakar Rally off-roaders and priced at $73,990 before on-road costs. It paired a more potent tune of the 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel with unique bodywork, wheel-arch extensions, all-terrain tyres and a bespoke suspension set-up using KYB shock absorbers and revised spring rates, plus a 15mm ride height increase and wider front and rear tracks.

That recipe explains why the badge matters. The GR Sport is the variant that puts the HiLux directly against the Ford Ranger Raptor, and its return gives Toyota a flagship ute to sit above the workhorse and lifestyle grades rather than relying on the Rogue and Rugged X to carry the top end.

Australia has not been confirmed

Toyota Australia has not confirmed a HiLux GR Sport for Australian showrooms. The local arm does already sell GR Sport grades of the Yaris Cross, Corolla Cross, C-HR, LandCruiser 300 Series and the new-generation RAV4, so the badge is familiar here, but that is not the same as a commitment on the ute.

There is a supply question underneath the silence. South Africa is a right-hand drive market like Australia, but it sources its HiLux from Toyota's Prospecton plant in Durban. The previous GR Sport was built in Thailand, as is the rest of the current Australian-market range, and it is unclear whether Australia could take a South African-built GR Sport if the flagship variant is not also produced in Thailand. Ford offers a useful comparison: it sources hybrid Ranger versions from South Africa while importing the rest of the Ranger line-up from Thailand.

Toyota Australia's broader brand strategy offers a hint of intent without a promise. GR (Gazoo Racing) was announced in late 2025 as one of five core brands the company would focus on, alongside Toyota, Lexus, Century and Daihatsu. A performance halo for the country's best-selling ute fits that plan neatly, but buyers should treat the Australian GR Sport as likely rather than confirmed until Toyota's local division says so.

What buyers still do not know

Pricing for the new model has not been announced. The last Australian GR Sport listed at $73,990 before on-road costs, and the current Rogue and Rugged X sit at $71,990, which gives a rough sense of where a flagship would land without settling anything.

Production location for the 2027 model is also unconfirmed. Thailand built the previous GR Sport, South Africa builds that market's HiLux, and Toyota has not said which plant will supply the new variant or whether Australian cars would come from either source.

What is settled is the timing window and the intent: a GR Sport HiLux is coming in 2027 according to Toyota South Africa's boss, and it will resume the model's role as Toyota's answer to the Ranger Raptor.

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