“When the sun rises from the west and sets in the east. When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves.” That was a heartfelt line from the hit TV show Game of Thrones that described a definite impossibility. And I couldn’t help but recall that line when thinking about the possibility of Ferrari making an SUV.
Don’t worry, that still hasn’t happened just yet – at least that’s how Ferrari sees it with its all-new model: the Purosangue. For the Italian automaker, the Purosangue is a Ferrari Utility Vehicle, which connotes that the automaker wants to market the vehicle in a league of its own. It’s anything but an SUV, so yes, the old man Enzo isn’t rolling in his grave in Italy right now.
For me, though, we’re now in the era of the most practical Prancing Horse ever. Whether it’s an SUV/crossover or not, that’s for the brand to handle. The old man Enzo could be rolling in his grave in Italy right now, though we couldn’t deny that
The Purosangue, or “thoroughbred” in Italian, is the latest to have come out of Maranello. It’s unlike any Ferrari before – it has four doors (five including the rear hatch) while also seating four decently and offering a massive cargo hold behind the second row.
Most importantly, the Purosangue sits on a platform that was purely developed for the model. So while you might think that the Purosangue is just a pure copycat of another Italian marque’s strategy back in 2017, think again. It isn’t just a rebadged model but actually a jump-off point for Ferrari as it forays into electrification, moving forward. Of note, the Purosangue’s modular platform is ready for electric motors and batteries, which makes it future-proof – at least underneath that beautifully sculpted body.
Speaking of, the Purosangue comes with a sultry design that reminds me of the Roma grand tourer. While not as simple as the coupe, the Purosangue reeks of personality. The rear suicide doors call back to some of the rarest living cars of the world, such as the Rolls-Royces and the Mazda RX-7s, while the lack of sufficient ground clearance serves the model’s call for style rather than off-road capability.
But the best part of the new Purosangue is not its near-encounter of being an SUV, nor its existence in the plane of reality as the first four-door Ferrari. It’s the award-winning V12 power plant that resides under its hood. In the age of electrification, Ferrari decides to raise its proverbial middle finger and debuts its latest thoroughbred with 12 cylinders that will only accept remains of dead dinosaurs.
In a typical Ferrari fashion, the Purosangue is powered by a normally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 that’s said to have the highest output of any Ferrari GT in history: 715hp and 716Nm of torque. This power plant is mounted up front, and makes 80 percent of pull early at only 2,100 rpm, with peak horsepower entering at 7,750 rpm; max torque comes in at 8,250 rpm. Translation? An interesting power band that should translate to an exciting drive.
These numbers are sent to all four wheels just like the four-seat GTC4Lusso, though the front axle drive disengages above fourth gear and/or around 200 km/h in the Purosangue. An 8-speed dual-clutch transmission couples the dry sump engine, which features an all-new valvetrain and revised intake geometry intended to aid low-end power delivery.
The Ferrari Purosangue is estimated to sprint from zilch to 100 kilometers per hour in a blistering 3.3 seconds, and ceilings at over 309 km/h.
In today’s standards, the newest Ferrari is both quick and fast despite having extra doors and seats. But the FUV isn’t just about straight-line speeds. Ferrari worked with Multimatic to equip the Purosangue with True Active Spool Valve (TASV) technology. This tech uses four 48-volt actuators to control the damper’s stroke. Without stabilizer bars in the setup, the actuators can work in concert to manage both pitch and roll. The quick-acting adjustments can manage both wheel motion and ride height, the latter of which can drop up to 10 millimeters while the vehicle is cornering.
The Ferrari Purosangue has a sticker price of €390,000 or around P22.2 million. It certainly isn’t cheap and reserved for the one-percenters of the world, more so when compared to its probable rivals like the Lamborghini Urus or the Aston Martin DBX707. But one fact remains, the Purosangue is certainly a first for Ferrari, no matter how polarizing its existence stands right now.