Purosangue

Make
Ferrari
Segment
SUV
  • Ferrari's first-ever production four-door, four-seat vehicle
  • Features a 715-horsepower front-mid-mounted 6.5-liter V12
  • Front and rear transmission units create an effective AWD system
  • 0-62 mph in 3.3 seconds, top speed of 193 mph

Following an age of development and numerous spy shots and teasers, Ferrari has finally revealed its first-ever SUV in the form you see below, bestowing upon it the name Purosangue, which translates in Italian to 'thoroughbred.' Is it right to call a Ferrari SUV a thoroughbred when the company was founded to go racing? Well, is the Purosangue truly an SUV?

Ferrari says no, and vehemently. It's a sports car and Ferrari's first four-door four-seater. We'll leave that for you to discuss in the comments, but for now, let's start with the most important element of any Ferrari - the engine. As promised, the Ferrari Purosangue arrives with a V12 power plant, something that would-be rivals like Aston Martin and Lamborghini have decided would be too difficult to fit in an SUV.

Ferrari's spectacular 6.5-liter V12 rests behind the front axle and under a dramatic clamshell hood. Despite no forced induction and no electrification (hallelujah!), the engine produces a ridiculous 715 hp and 528 lb-ft of torque, making it comfortably the most powerful SU... oh wait, this isn't an SUV. This extraordinary output allows it to achieve 0-62 mph in a stomach-churning 3.3 seconds and 0-124 mph in just 10.6 seconds. The top speed? 193+ mph, the same as the Aston Martin DBX707, which totally isn't a rival.

To be fair, the Purosangue is only 62.6 inches tall, meaning a Lamborghini Urus will overshadow it by about two inches. This is roughly the height of a Hyundai Ioniq 5, so if anything, it's a crossover. Ground clearance of just 7.2 inches puts to bed any questions about off-roading.

This car effectively replaces the GTC4Lusso, and it uses the same sort of all-wheel drivetrain. A small transmission on the front axle sends some of the power to the front wheels, while a rear-mounted eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transaxle sends the majority of the grunt to its nearest wheels. And like "proper" Ferrari sports cars, it comes with carbon-ceramic brakes. It also gets an independent rear-axle steering system, Ferrari's drift-tastic Side Slip Control, the ingenious grip-predicted traction control system for maximum grip in any situation, and the ABS 'evo' brake-by-wire system that debuted on the 296 GTB.

But for a vehicle that weighs 4,482 pounds (dry) in its lightest configuration, Ferrari had to come up with something special. Multimatic supplied active spool-valve dampers but then stepped things up a notch by adding an electric motor on each shock absorber to control the body in hard cornering (during which the car can lower itself by 0.4 inches). This meant the anti-roll bars could be deleted.

The Purosangue may borrow its AWD system from the GTC4Lusso, but the structure is all-new. By creating something from scratch, Ferrari was able to provide a stiffer chassis that allows for 49:51 front:rear weight distribution. There's also a standard carbon fiber roof to lower the center of gravity, although you can opt for a heavy electrochromic glass roof if you'd rather have your kids gazing at the stars. The four-seater Ferrari also offers you 16.7 cubic feet of cargo volume in the back, while the GTC4Lusso could only manage 15.9 ft3. Despite its impressive practicality, relatively speaking, it's a strict four-seater with no option of a three-across bench configuration.

About the design. You'll notice that the area you'd expect to find headlights in is vacant, dissected by running lights. The real forward projectors are lower down, alongside the lower intakes. The side profile reveals more use of negative space with a swoopy vent leading your eye from that clamshell hood to the muscular shoulder line. The smooth bodywork is uninterrupted by traditional door handles, the rear of which are hidden inside that curved shoulder line. Further back, the narrow rear window is topped by a beautifully integrated spoiler. The taillights are wrapped in more curvaceous sheet metal, but your eye is drawn immediately to the enormous carbon fiber rear diffuser and its four proud exhaust tips.

More carbon can be found on the wheel arches if you choose (which are vented and louvered for lower drag), but you can also leave these matte black. Inside those arches, you'll find a staggered set of 22-inch wheels up front with 23-inch wheels at the rear.

Getting into the rear is taken care of with electronically-operated suicide rear doors. A B-pillar remains, but the doors open to 79 degrees for better ingress and egress. In the front row, a whole new level of drama awaits you, with an unusual but welcome choice to forgo a central touchscreen. Ahead of the driver is a 10.2-inch digital gauge cluster, with the passenger treated to Ferrari's now-customary info display. Like the 296 GTB, the steering wheel has horrible haptic-feedback buttons, but some traditional elements remain, like the knob for the Mannetino drive mode controller. As usual, leather, Alcantara, and carbon fiber are available for your ideal cabin specification, and the exterior will be similarly customizable.

This is certainly something different, and those who have already bought one or soon will are sure to be in the minority, a trait the Purosangue will carry by design. As for pricing (deliveries are expected to begin late in 2023), you're looking at around $400,000, making it expensive enough to be a boutique product but cheap enough for Ferrari's closest clienti to use it regularly. We hope they do.