PINZOLO, Italy -- Ferrari expects to deliver its first four-door model, the Purosangue, to customers by mid-year, as the supercar maker responds to competitors such as the Lamborghini Urus SUV.
Ferrari says that the Purosangue, which was unveiled in September 2022, is not a crossover or SUV, although at 1589 mm tall, it is only slightly lower than a Porsche Macan, and 200 mm higher than the Ferrari GTC 4 Lusso, Ferrari’s V-12 powered four-seat coupe.
The goal was to give the Purosangue, which also has a V-12 engine, the same driving dynamics as a sports car.
Production is slowly ramping up for the Purosangue, which costs 390,000 euros ($413,000) in Italy, Pietro Virgolin, Ferrari product marketing manager, said at a test drive here in the Italian Alps last month. An optional carbon-fiber wide-body kit adds 70,000 euros to the price.
Last September, Ferrari chief commercial and marketing officer, Enrico Galliera, told journalists that the company might need to close order books for the Purosangue after initial demand exceeded expectations. Galliera said that Ferrari began receiving a significant number of pre-orders in September 2018, when the company announced that the Purosangue (Italian for "thoroughbred") would go into production.
Virgolin would not give precise order figures, but said that “the market has appreciated the Purosangue.”
Ferrari has stuck with two-door sports cars and 2+2 berlinettas, true to its racing origins (berlinetta is Italian for “low sedan”), but the meteoric rise in market demand for roomier, more comfortable sports cars risked leaving the company behind.
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The Urus SUV, which starts at about 230,000 euros in Italy, has become Lamborghini’s best-selling model, with 1,415 sales in Europe in 2022, according to figures from Dataforce.
In addition to the Urus, Aston Martin has launched the DBX SUV; and Porsche has the Panamera four-door sports sedan and station wagon, the Cayenne and Macan SUVs, as well as the full-electric Taycan.
The development effort that led to the Purosangue started in 2018 as Project 175 under then-Chairman Sergio Marchionne, Virgolin said. The brief was to retain Ferrari performance while increasing room, comfort and practicality.
“We benchmarked competitors’ cars for interior roominess, but our benchmark for performance was other Ferraris,” he said.
Cutting weight
The Purosangue’s 6.5-liter, V-12 naturally aspirated gasoline engine has 715 hp and 716 newton meters (528 foot-pounds) of torque at 6,250 rpm. The mid-front-mounted engine is coupled to an eight-speed transmission at the rear in a transaxle layout. A two-speed power transfer unit mounted in front of the engine can send power to the front wheels to provide all-wheel-drive capability.
Ferrari engineers made weight reduction a priority, and the Purosangue’s body structure is 4 percent lighter than the GTC4 Lusso’s, partly because of its standard carbon fiber roof and it's the eight-speed gearbox is 5 kg lighter than that its sibling model’s seven-speed transmission.
Dry weight is 2,033 kg, with weight distribution of 49 percent front and 51 percent rear. The Purosangue has a top speed of 310 kph (194 mph) and accelerates from 0 to 100 kph (62 mph) in 3.3 seconds.
Despite its higher stance and four doors, the Purosangue is not meant to be driven off road, Virgolin said.
The active suspension system has electrically activated dampers at each wheel that help smooth road bumps better than an adaptive suspension, Ferrari said. Each of the shock absorbers developed by Multimatic, a U.S. company, is supported by a 48-volt brushless electric motor capable of providing additional force to the reaction provided by the coil spring.
At 4973 mm long, the Purosangue is relatively compact for a four-door, front-engine V-12. By comparison, the Urus is 5112 mm long. Virgolin said that “many of our customers do appreciate cars they can park with relative ease in a crowded city.”
Rear-hinged doors for passengers
The Purosangue’s four seats are identical; the rear doors are hinged at the back to increase access. The rear seats fold forward to give more luggage space. Virgolin said a five-seat version was not possible, because with the transaxle configuration, “the transmission is our fifth passenger.”
The Purosangue features a mostly digital human-machine interface (HMI), building on one introduced on the Ferrari Roma in 2019. The cockpit is inspired by the SF90 Stradale plug-in hybrid; the front passenger has a dedicated 10.2-inch display that shows most of the same information as the driver. Climate and other comfort controls are through a rotary interface in the central section of the dashboard.
Drivers can use Ferrari’s traditional manettino (or “small handle”) on the steering wheel to select driving modes, including Wet, Comfort, Sport, Race and stability control off.
The Purosangue has no built-in navigation system; compatibility with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay systems enables customers to use their own devices’ systems.
