There Was A Time When Ferrari Purosangue Was Sworn To Never Exist. Now, It Does, And It Howls

This is the first SUV from a brand that had famously said they would never make one and yet, it's a $ 393,000-speed machine that cruises through snow and mud and mountains. Take a look at what it's like to drive on the road

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When the portly construction worker I passed in Pinzolo, Italy, made that signature gesture Italian men do when they shake their hand suddenly at the wrist, as if they had just touched something really hot, I knew my car had made an impression.

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It is rare for SUVs to generate fiery ardor when they are driven. However, the 2023 Ferrari Purosangue, the manufacturer's first four-door vehicle, had the exact effect that I was looking for as I drove through the ski resort three hours north of Milan on my way home.

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Considering the fact that the sinewy air ducts on either side of the hood are set up like suspension bridges, Signore must have liked them. Alternatively, you can hear the guttural growl of the engine that powers the V-12. Perhaps it was the sloping roofline, 23-inch wheels, and sizzling vermilion paint that attracted him to it in the first place.

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That makes sense to me. A smoldering hulk of metal, carbon, and supercar heart, the Purosangue ($393,000) (pronounced: PUR-o-SAN-gway, which is Italian for “thoroughbred,” literally “pure blood”) is a smoldering hulk of metal, carbon, and supercar heart that is designed to challenge the $230,000 Lamborghini Urus as the most powerful luxury SUV in the segment.

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Having spent 12 hours behind the wheel in the Dolomites, a day that included driving off-road in the snow, on alpine switchbacks, and on broad expressways, I can safely report that the Urus continues to reign supreme. A better overall combination of performance, value, and faithfulness to the heritage of design can be found in the Urus. For Ferrari fans, however, the Purosangue is still going to set their pulses racing despite these changes. There is even a possibility that some new admirers will be attracted to it.

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It is fair to say that anyone who follows Ferrari NV at all knows the carmaker pretty much has it all: sold-out order books and record sales in 2022; margins that rivals including Porsche and Mercedes-Benz can't match; and riotous hybrid supercars such as the 296 GTB, SF90 Stradale and LaFerrari.

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The only thing that it lacked was an SUV. As a matter of fact, Ferrari's leadership had sworn that such a sacrilegious conveyance would never be made by the company. A few years ago, CEO Sergio Marchionne told Trade Algo, "You have to shoot me before you can shoot me." Times have changed since then.

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Che sorpresa! With the amount of money that can be made by joining one of the most lucrative segments of the automotive industry in the world, it became too absurd to resist the temptation to join. From this year onwards, Ferrari says that the Purosangue will be responsible for 20% of its total global production, starting this year. Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini, and Bentley all report that roughly half of their sales come from their SUVs, which is a very low percentage. Ferrari, ever the contrarian, has made far fewer vehicles than it can sell over the past few decades. A few top executives of the company even refuse to use the term SUV to describe it, describing it instead as an "agile car" with "volumes more imposing than Ferrari's most powerful sports cars."

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As I ask Ferrari's design director, Flavio Manzoni, if he'd looked at the SUVs of his rivals before developing his own, he says that he's not interested in doing so. There was no way we wanted to be connected to a world like this. In order to protect himself, he started from square one, he says, and built a 4,500-pound vehicle with an all-wheel drive system, four driving modes, and settings for adjusting the suspension for deep snow and ice. There are also rear doors, and the clearance off the ground is adjustable, which are both new items for Ferrari's line.

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The clamshell hood and the rounded fenders of this car are all full of sensuous curves. There is not a straight line to be seen anywhere on this vehicle. It boasts the classic shark-nose style that is found on my personal favorite Ferrari model, the Roma, on the front end. A pair of daytime running lights sit on each side of the hood between two pairs of air intakes, a design cue that emphasizes the arched ducts rather than the headlamps under the hood. There are two rear doors that open in reverse, carriage-style, making it easier to access the back two seats of the car. Because it frees up the area where a normal door's hinge would be, it allows for more space to be utilized for bulky items such as coats and knees since it replaces the area where a regular door's hinge would be.

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It took me a while to notice the door handles. It wasn't until I looked closer that I discovered a piece of black plastic about the size of a credit card at the bottom of the window. With the help of an electronic motor, it is possible to open the rear door with just a light pull. The door can be closed by pressing a button on the inside of the door frame or using the black lever once more to close the door. There is no exact science to it, nor is it a quick process. Since the motor was too slow to operate, I have more than once resorted to pushing, re-pushing, and then shoving the door shut in an attempt to close it.

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On a small snow track cut into the mountain near the resort town of Madonna di Campiglio near the Italian resort town of Monte Amiata, Ferrari gave me the opportunity to test the Purosangue off-road. I started the car up in wet mode, with the suspension set to soft, and pushed the gas pedal all the way to the limit. As the rig whirled around snowdrifts and a lone skier relaxing in a sweater, with a toy poodle in tow, the rig remained firmly planted to the ground with no wiggling or sliding around. There were several cornering systems that helped the team master the ruts and bumps on the course, including the slip control, a new electronic stability function that works on each of the four wheels under braking, as well as a slew of other cornering systems. The Purosangue is also equipped with hill descent control, which is a feature that is standard in many off-road vehicles but is a first for Ferrari.

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After that, I switched to ice mode. This tightened the feedback between the steering wheel and the tires as we sped along the mountainside. This was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life, listening to the famous Ferrari V-12 engine note, not on a sunny Miami street, but instead while avoiding snowbanks and that toffee-colored poodle that was watching me as I drove by (utterly unbothered, by the way).

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On returning to the road, I activated the seat warmers as it had been -7C (19F) that morning. Turning the red switch on the steering wheel to comfort mode, I waved to a few schoolchildren waiting for the bus in boots and ski helmets as they waited for the bus. The highway was the only way I could reach my destination. There was some sort of Italian disco playing on the radio so I turned on the 21 speakers of my Burmester stereo to listen to it. But there was an intermittent sound of popping, which at first I thought was an errant snowball thrown by those kids. An official spokesperson told me that it turned out to be a problem with an early version of the audio system's software and that it will be addressed soon.

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There is a sense of modernity, sportiness, and richness in the cockpit. As a matter of fact, I recommend that you choose the glass roof over the standard recycled polyester fabric roof lining because it feels like ... polyester. Despite the fact that the Purosangue lacks any center touchscreen, its absence feels like a welcome relief. On the other hand, I was able to control audio, drive settings, and the heads-up display from a tiny touch-sensitive section on the steering wheel instead. This may be bothersome to some users who are not accustomed to playing video games or spending a lot of time on their phones.

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The climate control for both the driver and the passenger is controlled by a round dial on the center of the dash. In case you didn't guess already, no, there isn't an onboard navigation system as well. The Purosangue does not offer this service. Another spokesperson told me that "We don't require our customers to plug in their phones because they don't need them to do that,".

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As a matter of fact, I did not reach the 192 mph top speed promised in the Purosangue, nor did I take out my stopwatch to check the advertised 3.3-second sprint time from zero to 62 mph. I came close to achieving my goal after turning back toward Pinzolo and bombing Route SS43 and the A22 near the ice-blue waters of Lake Toblino on my way to Pinzolo.

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Whether it was the hypnotic disco music or the mushy pink of the setting Alpine sun causing me to surge past the lumbering trucks surrounding me, I can't say for sure. As I darted through traffic, the Purosangue lacked any wobble and I found that the faster I went, the more fun I had. As far as fuel economy is concerned, it gets a combined 13 mpg, but if that's what you're interested in, you didn't make it this far in the review. Purosangue offers refined powertrains, pin-precise handling, and level cornering that you're searching for.

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As I sipped my Bombardino back at the hotel, I found myself feeling smug, basking in the glow of Ferrari's accomplishment. From a higher seat position, the automaker's signature performance is a delight. Enzo Ferrari would've rolled over in his grave if he'd heard his company made an SUV-er, sorry, an "agile car with imposing volumes." But he'd love it once he drove it.