Named after the Purosangue Orientale horse breed, the first-ever sport utility vehicle from the Prancing Horse of Maranello may polarize opinion. Loyalists refuse to accept the existence of a sport utility vehicle, and the looks aren’t exactly to everyone’s liking either.
Beauty is a matter of subjectivity, but replacing the GTC4Lusso four-seat grand tourer with a sport utility vehicle was – dare I say it – an inspired decision. Ferrari opened itself to a plethora of prospective customers that wouldn’t have considered Ferrari on their shortlist prior to the introduction of the Purosangue, and the longroof-styled model is a thoroughbred where it really matters.
Still new in the minds of enthusiasts and potential customers, the Purosangue is the star of the featured promo clip, which sees the car taken out for a road trip in the supremely beautiful wilderness of Norway. The Kingdom of Norway is the global leader in EV adoption, yet the Italian automaker doesn’t have a zero-emission vehicle to its name just yet. It won’t be long now until the marque’s first-ever production electric vehicle will be presented to a sea of gasps and giggles.
Come 2025, the year Norway will ban the sale of new internal combustion-engined passenger vehicles, the Maranello-based automaker will go through a paradigm shift. How can a noiseless Ferrari be made exciting? There are three areas of interest that Ferrari needs to get right, starting with the way it looks and its performance. Most importantly, the handling needs to be world-class.
Best-in-class handling differentiates the Purosangue from other high-performance SUVs currently in production. The Lamborghini Urus comes to mind, the best-selling vehicle offered by the Raging Bull of Sant’Agata Bolognese at press time. The only high-performance sport utility vehicle in the segment to feature a naturally-aspirated powerplant is rocking a 6.5-liter V12 that traces its roots back to the Enzo’s engine.
Codenamed F140, the 65-degree V12 launched in 2002 with the limited-run Enzo, in which it produced 660 ps (651 horsepower) at 7,800 revolutions per minute and 657 Nm (485 pound-feet) of torque at 5,500 revolutions per minute. By comparison, the Purosangue cranks out 725 ps (715 horsepower) at 7,750 revolutions per minute and 716 Nm (528 pound-feet) of torque at 6,250 rpm.
There is a common misconception that practical Ferraris aren’t really Ferraris. Considering that founder Enzo Ferrari always used 2+2 grand tourers to the detriment of mid-engine thrillers such as the 512 BB, there’s no denying that the Purosangue fits that bill just fine. Il Commendatore might not be fond of the five-door arrangement (including the hatchback-style liftgate), but nevertheless, he would be more than happy to sell as many utility vehicles as possible to fund the Scuderia.
More expensive than a Rolls-Royce Cullinan, the Purosangue is limited to 20 percent of the automaker’s yearly production output. Ferrari delivered 13,221 vehicles in 2022, meaning that the Purosangue would’ve sold 2,644 copies had it been introduced a bit earlier.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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