OUT OF THE GATE: THE FERRARI PUROSANGUE
Esquire Australia, January 2024 (PDF)
After years of denying a high-riding four-seater vehicle was in its future, Ferrari acquiesced to growing customer demand. We take the Purosangue for a spin on the winding roads of New Zealand (Aotearoa) to see if indeed it is still a Ferrari.
If the general public learned anything from Michael Mann’s Enzo Ferrari biopic released in cinemas earlier this year, it was that il Commendatore was a man of will and unyielding vision, passion and perfectionism. Among the many, many Ferrari quotes often bandied about within motorsport and performance vehicles, his ‘passion cannot be described, it can only be felt’, is one that has presided over every decision the marque has made. Just as we saw in the poster-car battle of the 1980s that produced some of the most memorable Ferrari road cars (not to mention, F1 cars) ever made, the new era we find ourselves in, of electric-hybrid engines, global emissions restrictions and consumer expectations around body shapes, has challenged Ferrari to again question how the passion of the prancing horse needs to feel. I like to imagine conversations around balancing business with the founder’s legacy within Ferrari’s operations (of which his son Piero Ferrari is a 10 per cent owner and vice chairman), ending with someone scrawling a big WWED (what would Enzo do?) in big red marker across a whiteboard. (Though I’ve asked and allegedly, that does not happen.) Ferrari may be the one of the most powerful brand in the world, but, when it comes to a Ferrari-stamped object, can it also be a state of being?
After the success of the Porsche Cayenne, the super sports utility vehicle became the blueprint for sports car manufacturers to lift themselves out of financial hardship and into the two-car garage solution of deep- pocketed performance car lovers–Lamborghini made the Urus, Aston Martin launched the DBX and even Lotus now has the Eletre, to name a few. The super SUV offered, as all brands say in one way or another ‘a social experience in a supercar’. It didn’t take long for the premium marques to jump on the super SUV marketing train, however, the definition at the pointy end has always been ‘an SUV with supercar performance’– which includes speed, handling, suspension, braking and agility. It’s a call to challenge the physics of a high- riding vehicle, so that it can also perform on a track, essentially. For Ferrari, doubly challenged by its own bar of perfectionism within the supercar realm, joining this cohort had proved impossible, sacrilegious even, which is why Maranello had so fervently denied the idea of an SUV for so long. Alas, as the push for more ‘social’ super cars came from consumers, and Ferrari’s competitors enjoyed the influx of orders, the people have spoken. Ferrari has offered 2+2 grand tourers in its past, but nothing that could carry four full-sized adults comfortably and still perform on a race track. Maybe all good things come to those who wait? Ferrari sat on its plans long enough to see the crème de la crème of super SUVs come to life. But it still faced a problem. The solution in its simplest form, was to create a ‘high-riding grand tourer’ worthy of the Prancing Horse badge. In its most complex: go back to the drawing board to design, engineer and develop a new breed of car that wouldn’t cause a cyclone in the Ferrari family crypt. And with the Purosangue, that’s exactly what the Prancing Horse did–complete with a symphonic, naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12 under hood, capable of a 0-100km/h dash of 3.3 seconds, no less. Just don’t call it an SUV.
Usually when Esquire is out and about testing new cars, it involves jet lag and a 26-hour+ flight. But this time, we got lucky. Our Purosangue drive started in New Zealand (Aotearoa), where Ferrari HQ shipped out a band of left-hand-drive Purosangues (Italian for thoroughbred, and pronounced puu-roh-SANG-gway) along with some of its top engineers to replicate the historic grand tours it had famously undertaken in its most iconic cars of the past. The grand tour would see a drive from top to bottom of our Island neighbour in a huge four-week trip. We joined the herd at Blenheim, at the top of the South Island, where were took a route back up and around Picton and Havelock, and then down the coast to Kaikōura, inland though the winding roads around Mount Lyford and the Canterbury region and down to Christchurch. Which meant at best, we could put the super-GT through its paces on roads similar to ours, and at worst, leave glowing green with envy at the beauty of New Zealand and the niceness of the locals (as all Australians should).
Ferrari says that Purosangue is the culmination of 75 years of research. At the reveal in 2022, I asked ‘why now?’ and the answer, which came from engineers, designers, marketing and c-suite, was a collective ‘we just couldn’t do it before’. This is where the challenge of flattening a high- riding behemoth of a car around corners and cutting through the air and Ferrari perfectionism collides. Designers and aerodynamicists had to consider how to create little wind tunnels of downforce that fed through the aluminium and carbon-fibre bodywork to make it slip through the air and cool the brakes and engine efficiently (fun fact: Purosangue doesn’t have a rear wiper, but uses this air to direct it down the rear window). Trying to fit four full-sized adults with zero seating compromises in the rear led to the development of ‘welcome doors’ (formerly known as suicide doors) that open outwards and create more entry and exit space. Changing consumer sentiment called for new fabric options, including recycled materials made from recycled fishing nets and polyester (the latter a debut by Alcantara). Engineers had to redevelop the iconic V12 to produce the highest amount of torque at the lowest revs so that it could feel like it would have never-ending power and force (80 per cent maximum torque is delivered at 2100rpm, for those curious) on a variety of surfaces, but exactly like a supercar. Mechanics borrowed engine- calibration learnings from F1 to make sure this was the most powerful engine ever developed by Ferrari. And then, there is the completely innovative suspension system that boggles the mind at speed.
If you’re not a car person, chances are you’ve not put a lot of thought into suspension dynamics. With a taller car, the faster you try to accelerate or turn, you get body roll and pitch. Essentially, how much the car leans, from left to right (roll), front to back (pitch), when moving at speed— too much roll and pitch can make a performance car feel imprecise (and can cause occupants to feel ill), which is why supercars are so planted and close to the ground. With all the audacity of its founder, Ferrari wanted to change the law of physics—and it has. Without getting too technical, this was done by putting sensors and little motors on each axle which control the angle at which the car rolls and pitches, and keeps the tyres in contact with the road for ultimate grip. The effect smoothes out the road and takes the carsickness out of the corners, but not so much it loses feel. It’s not a go kart, but my god, as it snarls and snorts its way around undulating roads and mountain corners, it certainly is a laugh-out-loud riot with the feel of a much lower machine. If anything, we can consider this tech a major hint towards where supercars like this can go in the future, especially as we start to think about them getting heavier, bigger and faster.
For Australians, so besotted with high-performance luxury but also the idea that we can take our cars with us anywhere (OK, well not anywhere, it’s not a rock-hopper; remember, high-riding GT, not SUV!) Purosangue will be a local slam dunk–that is, if you’ve got a spare $728,000 (plus on-road costs) and are one of the lucky few to get on the allocation list. The haters (who should be grateful there’s still a naturally aspirated V12 in this thing) will argue that Purosangue is not a Ferrari. But what does that mean today, exactly? If all a Ferrari needs is a hot display of passion, perfectionism, speed and engineering marvel, with an authentic nod to the past, then, sorry to them, but this high-riding super beast is indeed a thoroughbred.
