Sports car maker’s first five-door car is tall and has four-wheel drive; just don’t call it an SUV On sale Now Price from £313,120
Matt Prior matt.prior@haymarket.com
FERRARI HAS FINALLY done what all its rivals already have and given us an SUV. Well, sort of. It doesn’t like using those three letters to describe the new Ferrari Purosangue, arguing that it’s different from, say, a Rolls-Royce Cullinan and that at heart it’s still a sports car.
The Purosangue – unlike the Bentley Bentayga, Lamborghini Urus and Porsche Cayenne – isn’t built on underpinnings shared with other, more humdrum models. The Purosangue sits lower to the ground than all its rivals, too. With a huge engine in the front and only four seats inside, this is – if you like – a more practical and habitable variant of the Ferrari GTC4 Lusso – a two-door estate.
As is typical in the class, there’s one trim level and a huge number of options available for buyers to add to the Purosangue’s already lofty £313,120 list price – a similarly mountainous pile of cash to that which Cullinan buyers must fork out.
Still, the Purosangue arrives with arguably the most spectacular of all engines fitted to tall cars like this. It’s a 6.5-litre V12 making 715bhp, and while most SUVs are about low-end grunt, the Purosangue’s maximum power arrives at a peaky 7750rpm. It’s a more restrained version of that found in the 812 Superfast coupé, being quieter but still rich and appealing. It drives smoothly through a snappy eight-speed automatic gearbox, powering all four wheels. This isn’t the kind of four-wheel drive system fitted to ‘proper’ SUVs, so the Purosangue can’t actually tow anything. What it does, though, is offer a really engaging driving experience.
The steering is ultimately just as quick as in other Ferraris, but it seems to have a gentler initial response, reducing twitchiness and bringing lots of stability. Meanwhile, the suspension gives a smooth, absorbent and yet very controlled ride.
It’s as isolated and refined as we think you’d want a Ferrari SUV to be, while being exciting when you want, too, such is its poise and balance. Of all the rivals you might be considering buying instead, only the Aston Martin DBX 707 and Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT are similarly exciting to drive.
The Purosangue has rear-hinged back doors, and they open independently of the front ones (unlike the set-up used by the BMW i3, on which you have to open the fronts first), making access to the interior easy. The gearbox is mounted at the rear,
