Yahoo Autos 2024 Ferrari Purosangue: We Take a Quick Spin in Monterey
During Monterey Car Week, all kinds of opportunities pop up to get behind the wheel of the exotic, rare, or vintage machinery. The challenge is figuring out the logistics given the overlapping events and the extreme traffic. But when we got the chance to sample the Ferrari Purosangue, three C/D editors—K.C. Colwell, Rich Ceppos, and Joe Lorio—made it a point to meet up with Ferrari's Jeffrey Grossbard to accept the keys and head out toward Laguna Seca.
JL: We're in the Ferrari Purosangue, which we're not sure how to pronounce [Editor's note: It's "Peur-Oh-Sang-Gway,"] in Carmel Valley. K.C. Colwell at the wheel, Rich Ceppos in the right seat, and Joe Lorio in the back.
JL: This back section is kind of a scooped-out cave with leather everywhere. Can't really see out easily. The seats are kind of hard and firm, highly sculpted. Trying to fine-tune their adjustments is a little bit of a puzzle, because it's done with a pop-up haptic touch wheel in the center console. Luckily, the main seat controls and the power window controls are real physical controls, but there's all kinds of haptic touch stuff going on up front.
RC: What do you think of the Rolls Royce–style rear coach doors with the power closing? Pretty wild.
JL: I was looking for the door handle at the wrong end of the door.
RC: Power closing is necessary, because you can't reach them when they swing all the way outward. This is also a very over-digitized car. It's taken us all kinds of effort to try to adjust the seat heating from one side to the other, and figure out how all this stuff works, because it's not obvious.
JL: Even after the tutorial we received at handoff.
RC: You really have to learn this thing, and that's going to take a lot of time.
JL: And I think even once you do learn it, it's a lot of steps to do things that shouldn't take a lot of steps.
RC: Exactly. It just shows you how some car companies have gone too far with trying to pack everything into digital control. We have the same pop-up wheel up front that controls seat heat, air conditioning, temperature, individual seat bolsters, and lumbar—and getting through all that, it takes time, and it's not very responsive.
KC: It is a nice aesthetic, though.
RC: It looks great.
JL: Ferrari has cleaned up the steering wheel—it doesn't have as many buttons as some recent models. But then it's got all kinds of this haptic stuff, and you have to wake up the steering wheel first, by touching one section, and then it shows you what you can do.
RC: And here's one of the craziest things: We were told that if we're going to stop and take photos with the door open, we'd better leave the engine running. Because if you open the door, that wakes all the computers up, and that draws so much power that it can kill the battery in 10 or 15 minutes.
JL: Speaking of running the engine, tell us from the driver's seat what you're experiencing with this V-12.
KC: The V-12 is obviously a lovely, melodic thing.
JL: It sounds good back here.
KC: It's like, little cabin, big car. I noticed I was hitting the rumble strips on the side of the road more than I would normally. So it's quite wide. The mirrors are nice and big, but the visibility out the back is a peephole.
The car does not have a native navigation system. I don't know if that's optional. And when you plug in CarPlay, it takes over the entire dash; I kind of think that's kind of interesting. The roof is also pretty cool.
JL: It’s got a giant-size electrochromatic glass roof panel. And I can control it from the back.
RC: Every surface in this interior, except where it's piano black, is covered in light tan or black leather.
JL: Yeah, it's like a leather cave.
RC: We have a second screen in front of the front passenger.
JL: Back here there’s this inset carved out, piano black trim element on the upper door panel that wraps around behind the seats. That sort of echoes the scoop in the front fender.
RC: The style and aesthetic in here is super high end, super designy.
JL: There's a lot of style going on.
RC: Appropriately.
JL: They have to convey the idea that this is not some kind of utilitarian SUV—this is a super sports SUV.
RC: Not like you would mistake that the first time you laid eyes on it.
JL: No. To your point, Ferrari definitely amped up the design outside too.
RC: It looks like a real Ferrari. It's got a lot of that emotion.
RC: Sitting in the front seat, the peaks of the fenders make you think it's a lot narrower than it is. The fenders flare out so wide that the car is way wider than you get a sense of from the interior.
JL: We’re really feeling a lot of the road texture.
KC: I put it into Sport.
RC: The roads are so otherwise smooth here, the suspension doesn't move very much, so it's hard to feel how much stiffer it is, but it is stiffer.
JL: OK, we were earlier dissing this car for having a full tank of gas and an indicated range of 218 miles. But now that we've actually driven it on the highway, it's showing 285 miles. So I guess we can now say it has the range of a really good electric car.
KC: Did you hear that?
JL: Knocking from low-octane fuel, maybe?
RC: Elana [senior editor Elana Scherr] mentioned that she had driven one, and she said it sounded like it had engine knock. Yep, that's what it sounds like. Yeah, they must be running it so lean at low throttle inputs like this.
JL: I imagine it really wants 93 octane fuel but it can only get 91 in California.
RC: California is such a big market for Ferrari, you'd would think they would have sussed this out already, because while it may not be hurting the engine, it just doesn't sound good.
JL: We need to open it up a little and let it stretch out. [KC does.] All right, there's 7000 rpm.
RC: That sounds good.
JL: That does sound good.
KC: This is yet another car that is going to be nearly impossible to come anywhere near the limit on public roads. This thing has massive tires. This is a truly active suspension from Multimatic. So it's spool valves, active spool valves. I think this car doesn't have any roll bars; it's all done through the active dampers.
KC: I'm hearing something.
JL: The empty rear seatback is vibrating a little bit.
KC: The steering has really nice weight, and you can feel it vibrate with the grain of the road. But it didn't seem to load up a lot in corners.
RC: It sure looks like it’s accurate. There were no adjustments needed in those corners you just took; the car went exactly where you pointed it.
KC: And it comes off center nice.
[swap drivers, Rich Ceppos now driving]
JL: The transmission controls are puzzling. You gotta slap a paddle to put it in drive, reverse its own little flipper.
KC [in back]: Oh, this is a mandatory-lumbar seat, isn't it?
JL: Yeah, the back seat has lots of lumbar.
KC: This back seat is downright uncomfortable.
JL: I was all right, but your body definitely adjusts to the seat.
RC: We're different shapes. I'm kind of scrawny and I think it suits me better.
KC: It's like the recline—I feel like the apex of where it adjusts is mid-back. I don't think I would be comfortable on a long trip.
JL: But there is enough space for an adult to slip in there.
JL: Sitting up front, it doesn't look like you're driving a big car. And yet it is a big car.
KC: Yeah, if you kind of look in the mirrors, you're like, oh, there's a lot more car back there.
RC: In Comfort mode, there's just no effort buildup in the steering.
KC: But the car is sticking.
RC: Doesn’t take much effort to slow it down, either. Very light brake effort.
It also it sure doesn't feel very tall from the driver's seat. You're a little higher than in a normal car, but it's like a Porsche Macan—you forget you're in an SUV.
JL: This really is blurring the line between sports coupe and SUV.
RC: Or sports sedan. If Ferrari made a sedan, people might not want it, but it has this proportion, so it’s okay. It's in fashion. I talked with a Ferrari dealer from Miami who says Purosangue production is already sold out. That shows you just how hungry the tifosi have been for an SUV they can take the family along in.
KC: It's a Ferrari Panamera.
RC: As you walk around the car in person, you see a lot of slots and air inlets and outlets and aerodynamic things that just don't show up well in photos.
RC: The brake pedal feels very race-car-ish in that there's almost no movement to it, which isn't bad.
[Joe Lorio switches to driver's seat]
JL: There's a lot of engine presence, even at low-ish, medium-ish rpm.
RC: If you're on it, but it's not bad if you're off it. It's good sounds all the way. What's the redline on this thing? Eight grand.
RC: You're in Sport mode, Joe, so maybe that's why it's a little louder.
RC: Was that 8000 rpm? And it did not sound the least bit strained.
KC: This is the same engine that's in the 12Cilindri. Not the same power, but same block. So you've got to imagine, Ferrari could put a really spicy version of it in here.
JL: Okay, I'm getting a little better with these brakes. They take some getting used to.
KC: That engine knock is so bad. Could you imagine buying this car and having that?
JL: There isn't a crazy, crazy amount of configurability—M style—which is good.
KC: Yeah, absolutely good.
RC: I like that the manettino is on the wheel. It's just a quick flip back and forth to switch drive modes.
JL: I like this seating position. These A-pillars are a little beefy, but the cowl is low.
RC: It's a good view out front.
JL: It seems like they were very conscious of making it Ferrari-like. The design, I think, totally succeeds.
KC: Yeah.
RC: It's a Ferrari-personality car that you can take two extra people in.
JL: It's kind of like an evolution of the FF.
KC: Or of the GTC4.
KC: Okay, turn it off.
JL: Where's the stop/start?
KC: Center of the wheel, at the bottom. It’s a haptic start/stop button.
JL: Of all the haptic buttons, that one's the easiest to deal with— you only have to use it twice per drive.
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