Awesome foursome
It has taken quite a while for the keys to a Ferrari Purosangue to find their way into my hands but at last they have. I suspected driving this car was going to be quite an experience.
Ferrari doesn’t actually refer to the pure-oh-sang-way as an SUV but that’s what it is. A rival to the Rolls-royce Cullinan, Lamborghini Urus and Aston Martin DBX. But the Ferrari is something else.
The naturally aspirated 6.5-litre
V12 engine produces 715bhp and is, of course, made by Ferrari, not bought in from another company like Aston’s Merc-sourced V8 or the Rolls’ BMW engine.
This mighty engine drives through an eight-speed transaxle (that’s a combined gearbox/differential unit at the back of the car) with another two-speed gearbox which takes power from the front of the crankshaft and, via a couple of clutches, drives the front wheels to provide part-time four-wheel drive.
The Purosangue is Ferrari’s first four-door car. It’s a car that the Italian firm’s enthusiasts, who probably own a couple of other Prancing Horse models, have been asking for for a long time. A more practical Ferrari in other words.
The eye-watering price tag is £313,120, not that one of these will leave a dealership with less than £50,000-worth of optional extras.
What is slightly concerning when you slip into the driver’s seat is that this Ferrari 4x4 is almost five metres long and exactly two metres wide.
That’s a lot of car to feed down a Sussex lane. And I’ll bet that each 23in wheel and tyre costs six months’ wages.
So, can you get four people into the Purosangue? The rear doors hinge at the back, like a Rolls-royce
Phantom’s do. And not surprisingly we didn’t have much trouble finding a couple of willing volunteers to sit in the back to test for legroom.
It also gave me a first-in-career opportunity to frighten more than one Ferrari passenger at a time.
Adequate legroom was reported from the back, between nervous squeals.
You can put 473 litres of luggage in the boot and Ferrari will sell you an optional gadget that you can attach to the boot to carry your mountain bike or skis. The engine is magnificent. Other super SUVS can match the Ferrari’s performance but none can equal its voice. The engine starts and settles down to a smooth and rich sounding idle and under load it sounds fantastic.
Naturally you have a choice of driving modes, accessed by an F1-like knob on the steering wheel. Your choice goes from Ice up to Sport.
The Purosangue has very clever suspension which we don’t have space to discuss in depth – suffice to say there are no anti-roll bars because very sophisticated dampers do the job really well.
The ride is pretty stiff, even in comfort mode, with the wheels crashing over ripples in the road, particularly at low speeds.
It’s likely the huge wheels, tyres and brakes are to blame as they’re all unsprung weight.
The best thing about the Purosangue is that it really feels like a Ferrari, unlike the Urus and the Dbx,which respectively don’t feel like a Lamborghini or an Aston Martin. It’s also the most useable day-to-day Ferrari ever made.