The Ferrari Purosangue Makes You Forget It's an SUV

Let’s not debate the merits of Ferrari building an SUV, or, as the company would prefer you call it, simply a "four-door, four-seater." Not when the technical specifications are so fascinating.

The Purosangue—Italian for purebred—has a 6.5-liter V-12 mounted so far back in the chassis, you can only see the front six cylinders under the hood. It's paired with an eight-speed transaxle that drives the rear wheels, and a two-speed gearbox driven off the front of the engine enabling all-wheel drive. The mostly aluminum chassis is lighter and stiffer than that of the GTC4Lusso, the car this replaces, despite being much larger overall. Like a lot of big luxury-performance cars, it has four-wheel steering, but here, each rear wheel can steer independently of the other. It also has the most extraordinary suspension system, featuring Multimatic's new True Active Spool Valve (TASV) dampers. These dampers use motors to control the stroke independent of road surface. Add in the latest versions of Ferrari's various electronic chassis systems, and you have one of the most interesting cars on sale.

Ferrari says the suspension enables everything here. In the Purosangue, there are no anti-roll bars; the dampers control body roll on their own, while allowing each wheel to move independently of one another. Ride height is also controlled by the dampers, so the Purosangue forgoes the air springs typical of high-end luxury SUVs for traditional coils. Ferrari essentially uses the system–which it dubs Ferrari Active Suspension Technology (FAST)–to decouple ride quality from roll stiffness. Normally in a high-riding performance car, stiff springs and thick anti-roll bars are employed to ensure good handling, though this comes at the expense of ride quality. Active anti-roll bars and air springs can wrestle some fidelity back, but Ferrari engineers felt that this sort of system was too heavy and too slow to get the desired dynamics.

They're right. For the first time ever in an SUV, I momentarily forget I'm in an SUV. On challenging switchbacks in the Italian Dolomites, it's only on occasion that you look around and think "oh yeah, I am sitting up pretty high." It's stunning.

All the more so when you consider the size of the Purosangue. It's about as long as a Toyota Highlander, a little wider, and sits a few inches lower. Ferrari also quotes a curb weight of 4784 pounds, about 550 pounds more than its predecessor, the GTC4Lusso. The chassis might weigh less, but the Purosangue is a larger car with a lot more luxury features.

The Purosangue is a continuation of a lineage of four-seat Ferraris that dates back to the 250 GT 2+2 of 1960. The details have changed a lot over the decades but the basics are a constant—V-12 up front, four-seat cabin, speed, comfort, and style in abundance. The Purosangue is, of course, the first with significant ground clearance, but also the first with truly comfortable back seats. There's two electronically adjustable buckets with a huge center console—there’s no bench available—all of which is accessed through rear-hinged doors that open automatically when you pull on a small electronic lever, and close via a button inside.

Up front, you're ensconced in the leather-lined cabin, helping create the illusion of a lower car. There's no center infotainment screen, rather, most functions are handled through the gauge cluster and controlled with haptic pads and buttons on the steering wheel, and mirrored for the passenger on a separate touchscreen. In the middle, there's a single rotary wheel with an integrated screen that rises out of the dashboard and controls HVAC and some seat controls. On first impression, it's all a little fiddly, taking significant concentration to make little changes. Ferrari also did away with an inbuilt navigation system as its customers use Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which is fine on its own, but pulling up the map means you have to do away with the tachometer. Switching between the two screens isn't hard, but it's hardly elegant.

That's just about all that's inelegant about the Purosangue. The seats are very comfortable, especially with the optional massage function (a Ferrari first), and a standard glass roof makes it feel spacious and airy, even in all black, as seen here. It's remarkably quiet, too, keeping the sounds of big tires and wind noise at bay, allowing the occupants to enjoy the excellent Burmester sound system. There is one noise that comes in, however—the V-12.

For the Purosangue, Ferrari tweaked its 6.5-liter V-12 to offer a broader torque curve at the expense of peak power. Whereas the V-12 in the 812 Superfast makes 789 hp at 8500 rpm and revs to 8900, the Purosangue's engine offers 715 hp at 7750 rpm and redlines at 8250. Not quite as wild, but by any other standard, this engine screams. It's still massively oversquare and has a sky-high 13.6:1 compression ratio. It couldn't be more different than the turbo V-8s used in other luxury high-performance SUVs, but Ferrari still notes that it makes above 480 pound-feet of torque between 4300 and 7750 rpm, peaking at 528 lb-ft at 6750 rpm.

This V-12 is one of the all-time greats. Smooth and cultured, yet always willing to rip past eight grand. There's not a ton of exhaust sound, but in the cabin, you get plenty of intake and combustion noise, with the aural signature constantly changing based on engine speed and throttle position. As it should be. It gives the engine an interactive quality that's amplified by the super-quick dual-clutch gearbox. Again, the shifts aren't quite as sharp as you get in an 812, but that better suits the character of a long-legged grand tourer. Being naturally aspirated, it's easy to manage the mighty power and torque available. You're also encouraged to rev the V-12 out because even though there is a nice broad torque curve, the engine does its best and sounds its best the higher you climb. It's a special thing.