But Automologist MAC thinks it sure looks like one…
There is an old saying, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck. But the good folks over in Maranello, the home of Ferrari, beg to differ. They claim that the Purosangue, which looks like an SUV to me, should be considered in a class all of its own, a new genre if you like, but never be labelled an SUV. Sounds like they are playing a bit of a semantic game though.
The name itself can be taken in one of two ways: quite literally, Purosangue means “pure blood” but you would really translate it as thoroughbred, you know, as in a horse. Quite good for a brand which crest features a prancing stallion. This is of course quite a new game being played by Ferrari who to date has only made not very practical supercars and mostly two-seaters.
This one will be a high-riding four-door, four-seat and four-wheel-drive with a 6.5-litre V12 producing 715bhp. The engine is stuffed in the front but set well back behind the front axles, one of the reasons that the bonnet looks so long, and the 8-speed gearbox is placed at the back with twin-clutch power take-off unit to send drive to each of the front wheels. The front-engine and rear-gearbox configuration spreads the weight across the chassis more evenly and makes this a sort of front-engine vehicle that behaves like a mid-engine vehicle. Cool.
I haven’t seen one in real life yet but those who have say it looks like Ferrari has come up with a car that can be considered a daily driver, with sufficient accommodation for a small family and perhaps a few bags that you can load through a hatch. Ferrari claims though that the suspension system provides both the feel of GT comfort that SUV drivers seek but has a ‘Silly Button’ to provide increased handling characteristics for when you want to be, well, silly.
You may be thinking that the USD500,000 price tag is a lot for a (not) SUV, but the most recent news coming in is that Ferrari has already sold the next two years’ production and has closed their order books for a car that has not hit the roads yet. When you consider the 24-month waiting time for a Purosangue is 6 months longer than the average wait for one of their supercars, you will realise that Ferrari has a winner on their hands. Still, I bet the fuel consumption figures are going to piss off some people wearing hemp trousers.
