Remember when Ferrari swore it would never make an SUV? Well, times and CEOs change, and now the house of the prancing horse has its own high-riding four-door to boost sales. Of course, Ferrari would rather you call the Purosangue a “2+2,” a “modern GT,” or “the first ever four-door, four-seater car in the Prancing Horse’s 75-year history,” but let’s be real: it’s a crossover, and that’s not a bad thing.
To earn its Ferrari badge, the Purosangue needs to be a performer. In this, it seems the car has succeeded — 715 horsepower and 528 lb-ft of torque coming from a 6.5-liter V12 engine and reaching all four wheels through an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. But a Ferrari must also be sleek, flashy, all those things we associate with Italian sport luxury. How does a crossover, of all things, fare there?
The styling is a bit of a mix, as any crossover aiming for sleekness is. The upward sweep of the beltline clearly parallels the GTC4Lusso, as do the four independent tail light elements that Ferrari tucked up inside the bulge of the rear fenders. At the front, however, the Purosangue is taller and more flat-nosed than any of the company’s prior models — it looks a bit like a Roma that’s been vertically stretched in Photoshop.
The exterior also bears one of the Purosangue’s most unique features: rear-hinged rear doors. Few companies are bold enough to put reverse-opening doors in their crossovers, but Ferrari took up the challenge. The company also claims the doors are electric, and the lack of any visible external handle backs that claim up.
Inside, the Purosangue looks like a proper middle ground between Ferrari performance and crossover comfort. The seats look thin and well-bolstered but don’t appear to have skimped on padding. The dashboard features multiple screens, with the driver and passenger each getting their own pod of technology to stare at.
The rear of the Purosangue also breaks with crossover tradition, offering four seats rather than the traditional five. The sweeping beltline that made the interior so sleek returns with a vengeance, however, coming up to chin height for the back-seat passengers — even higher if those passengers are younger kids.
The Purosangue is no slouch on power, but Ferrari seems to have put equal effort into its handling. An all-wheel-drive system borrowed from the GTC4Lusso, controlled by the brain from an SF90 Stradale, manages power to each wheel. Traction control and brake-by-wire come from the 296 GTB, but the adaptive suspension is all unique. The Purosangue may be thoroughbred, but it’s still something new.
Ferrari didn’t detail availability or pricing for the Purosangue, but don’t get your hopes up about buying one — the company is already considering closing orders for its first-ever SUV due to high demand. See, Ferrari, why it’s okay to call the Purosangue a crossover? The buyers will eat it up.