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Ferrari’s first-ever four-door passenger car has arrived, costing from £313,220 and sending 715bhp of naturally-aspirated V12 power to all four wheels. To find out how it compares to its closest rivals from Aston Martin and Lamborghini, Jethro Bovingdon puts it to the test on the snow covered roads of Italy.
Read our in-depth Ferrari Purosangue review here - https://www.evo.co.uk/ferrari/purosangue
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0:00
As you can see, this is not your typical Ferrari lord
0:17
There'll be no glorious smoking tyres, third gear power slides and no laps of Fiorano
0:22
We are still in Italy, but we're in the Dolomites in northern Italy. We've had a big dumping of snow
0:27
But that's not the only reason it's different, because we have Ferrari's first ever four-door, the Puro Sangue
0:34
Probably saying that wrong, but it's something approximating that. Some traditions are sacred, of course
0:39
We still have a V12, we have a transaxle, and in typical Ferrari style
0:43
they've thrown every piece of technology known to mankind to make this big, heavy, high-riding SUV crossover
0:51
four-door, whatever you want to call it, drive like a Ferrari. That's what they tell us. They say it's great fun
0:57
We've got strange conditions, but let's see if we can find out
1:02
We know it's an SUV, despite what they say, but is it a real Ferrari
1:07
Shall we go and do some skids? Oh yes, the Pura Sangue might be four-wheel drive, but to be honest, you'd barely know it
1:30
and in driving snow, it is wonderfully leery. Like the Lusso before it, Pura Sangue uses an
1:35
unconventional four-wheel drive system. The front wheels are powered by a crank-driven two-speed
1:40
gearbox hanging from the front of the engine, great for weight distribution and allowing the
1:45
Pura Sangue to retain the front mid-engine position you'd hope and expect to see. Very
1:49
Ferrari and something I hope we can test out on dry roads later. For now let's stick with the basics
1:58
So let's start with the things I can tell you about. Well the driving position, does it feel
2:03
like a Ferrari? Well it's a bit weird because in some ways it actually does. With the long bonnet
2:10
and the low scuttle it feels, it's an illusion, but it feels like I've sat over the rear wheels
2:18
like you would in like an 812 super fast or something so it's got that ferrari gt feel it's
2:23
got this lovely thin steering wheel and so some of the touch points feel oddly familiar from other
2:31
ferraris but obviously you're elevated which is a strange sensation in a ferrari
2:38
the engine i can't fully extend the engine as you can probably tell but it creates
2:48
this sort of it's hard to describe but it feels so exotic compared to the turbocharged v8s
2:58
that we're used to in these sorts of cars it gives the car a sort of imperious nature which i love
3:08
and overall what it does feel like is a car that isn't based on anything else it's not compromised
3:19
by being based on another car you can feel that in the steering response and
3:27
the driving position everything is quite clever what they've done rather than try and
3:34
focusing on performance in the way of like an Urus Performante, they've just increased the
3:42
breadth of the performance in every element so it isn't sharply going in one direction
3:47
it's just sort of expanding what you might expect in a car like this
3:53
This is a very good start The Pure Sangue feels like a quality item and the smooth precise steering and gorgeous 6 V12 are pure Ferrari Creating this shared DNA with the sports cars was absolutely at the heart of the puro sangue development key to achieving it is
4:09
the new ferrari active suspension technology this is a powerful and complex system each damper has
4:14
an electric motor connected to a metal rod running through the body of the unit itself applying force
4:19
to this rod combats body roll pitch and squat and allows ferrari to play with the roll stiffness and
4:24
balance there are no anti-roll bars at all they say this system allows a 2033 kilo car to exhibit
4:31
the roll control of a much lighter sports car for day one comes and goes with nothing but snow
4:37
so testing the theory is tricky yeah it's a funky thing i would like some tarmac i would really really like some tarmac
4:48
much as I love skidding about on snowy roads in a car this big
4:57
on narrow roads lined by half-coat and rocks and with snow plows
5:02
very often coming the other way it's a intimidating experience Day two, dawn's bright and fresh
5:21
But you know what? It strikes me that yesterday could have been designed to prove Ferrari's entire case for this car
5:27
The conditions meant we had to ditch the hire car and load up the Ferrari with kit and crew
5:31
and drive for hours through rain, fog and driving snow. The fact it coped so well might be enough to simply say job done
5:39
But for me, it needs to be more than a relatively practical car that makes a nice noise
5:44
So let's wind it up a bit and see what happens. and i think the first thing to say
5:59
it feels very ferrari like in a lot of ways obviously the architecture and the design which
6:07
is actually nice and the ui stuff which is a nightmare in 296 and sf90 is much better it's
6:13
still not perfect they've effectively turned all the haptic stuff it's the same controls basically
6:22
but there are now guides for your fingers almost like buttons or you could just fit buttons but in
6:29
other ways and the dynamic ways which is what i care about there is definitely that fingerprint of
6:37
a Ferrari and it comes from this light, really precise steering. It's quick in the Ferrari
6:43
tradition but not crazy. And in the fluency of the car. That's what these new dampers
6:50
really bring and that's what's new maybe into a car like this. It's a big heavy car
6:59
but it's got the same Ferrari fluency it doesn't bully its way down the road which is the way a lot
7:09
of the really fast SUVs operate they um yeah they they really sort of pummel the road into submission
7:17
this is different it's it works with the surface it feels more agile more nimble it feels lighter
7:26
in a lot of ways and the way the thing turns is really impressive
7:35
It's clear that the Puro Sangue has a lighter touch than cars like the Urus or the fastest
7:39
Cayennes but we should also remember it's a pure four-seater and the luggage room isn't great
7:45
It's nothing like as spacious as a DBX 707 for example. So Puro Sangue is either pleasingly
7:51
focused or hopelessly compromised depending on your point of view and the number of people you
7:55
need to move around. It's the front end in particular. It just has this lovely amount of crisp turning and then it doesn really want to push
8:15
And in quicker corners you notice it more. The hairpins you can make it understeer, you can make anything understeer in those
8:22
But in these quick turns it just bites into the corner and then you feel the rear helping you around
8:30
and that is a very Ferrari feel and I think it's the best version of this four-wheel drive system
8:37
I've tried I didn't really get on with it in the other cars it feels more natural here
8:42
the rear wheel steer is interesting at times it feels fantastic and it really aids the car's agility but there are other times where it just feels
8:56
a little bit artificial through quick corners where you just want confidence
9:01
It turns in and then you feel the rear sort of adopting this weird your moment that you don't expect
9:08
It never loses control, but it's not quite what you expect. And when you've got a big heavy car that goes as quickly as this one, you do not want surprises
9:20
of course there's a huge amount of configurability here to tailor the car to your preferences
9:30
in fact the manatino gives a wider range of control than ever before we have ice mode
9:38
wet comfort sport that's the final one there is no race and then it's esc off if you press
9:46
the manatino there's also a way to adjust the dampers but unlike before it's not just a bumpy
9:52
road mode so in comfort mode you can have soft or medium basically but when you go up to race
10:00
not race old habits when you go up to sport the top mode you can actually have soft medium or hard
10:08
so there's three damper modes for the first time um and they work beautifully to be honest
10:15
I can't imagine anyone would be that upset with hard mode every day like I would live in sport
10:22
medium all the time and hard does not create a horrible riding car at all and then ESC off also
10:31
feels not something you're going to do every day but because of the way the four-wheel drive system
10:38
works, it doesn't feel like a huge leap in the dark. The car has some natural balance
10:54
So you do have to learn the car a little bit because it is quite sharp on turning and in
10:58
quick corners it's got that slightly contrived feel at the rear, but there's balance there when
11:03
when you get it moving around. And it's that typical Ferrari thing
11:11
You feel like the performance should be intimidating, but they manage to just sort of empower you to enjoy it
11:19
It's really clever. It's a big old thing. And you have to be quick with it at times, but..
11:28
More than that, more than that it can do that, which is fun
11:36
more than it can do the hooligan stuff, is that it just feels like an agile, relatively nimble car all the time
11:48
And that is genuinely impressive. So Ferrari can cheat the laws of physics, but it can't defeat them altogether
12:00
And in a world of super-powered SUVs with ocean liner levels of torque, that leads me
12:05
to do something I not entirely comfortable with I going to criticise Ferrari V12 now which has never happened before I not going to criticise the engine It the first time I ever driven a car with
12:22
this engine in where it doesn't feel ballistic just all the time because of the extra weight
12:28
It's a quick car, but lots of these sorts of cars have got twin-turbo V8s with huge amounts
12:35
of torque at no revs this thing's quick at low revs but it's only up above four and a half that
12:43
it really feels all 700 plus horsepower the flip side is how special the engine is compared to any
12:52
of those twin turbo v8 it's just not even in the same conversation yes
12:59
It's a Ferrari in so many ways. I don't have the love that I would if I was in, I don't know, 296 or something like that
13:14
Of course I don't. But I am impressed and amazed that they've made this car have the identity of a Ferrari to a certain extent
13:25
And to a large extent, actually. it's it's some achievement looking back now I'm aware that I'm saying words like impressive and achievement this makes perfect
13:40
sense Pura Sangue is not a supercar it's a big high riding car with remarkable breadth of ability
13:45
and an absolutely glorious engine looks pretty cool too Willett Dahl Ferrari's incredible luster
13:51
built up with decades of F1 and sports car success and an unbroken line of exotic impractical
13:57
road cars? Probably not. Will young kids dream about flinging a pura sangue along a deserted
14:02
road in Tuscany? I doubt that too. Well we have a very very dirty Ferrari. We've been all over
14:11
northern Italy up into the ski resorts in the Dolomites. We've had snow, we've had rain, we've
14:16
had salt and filth. I guess we've been trying to show the breadth of ability of this car
14:21
but really we were searching like we always are on these chutes for the perfect road. We didn't
14:27
quite get there but then i realized on the way the whole point of this ferrari is you don't need
14:33
the perfect road it is for every day it is an all-purpose ferrari it does some things absolutely
14:40
brilliantly and it even does a pretty good impression of a ferrari sports car but it does
14:46
ask that fundamental question do you need a ferrari for every day shouldn't it be special
14:51
shouldn't it be for those magic moments when you're on your own and enjoying the sunshine the
14:56
dry tarmac, the excitement of a screaming V12 or V8 engine. I really admire this car
15:05
but I don't love it. Give me a 296 any day or an F50. I'll have an F50 on second thoughts
15:10
and a Suzuki Jimny. That can take me skiing. I'm being facetious, of course. This isn't an
15:17
either or type deal. In fact, in this crazy market, people will probably buy Pura Sangues
15:22
not just because they're dying to own one, but because it will help them secure the next limited
15:26
edition 296 or mad v12 engine special success is guaranteed even so the point stands a Ferrari
15:34
should be special an event something outside the sphere of everyday concerns their heritage buys
15:39
them the right to make this car and their engineering genius ensures it's bloody good
15:44
however although I really enjoyed the Pura Sangue if I never drove one again it wouldn't really upset
15:50
me not driving one of the mid-engine cars or front engine v12 coupes that would be a full-on
15:56
Shakespearean tragedy
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#Ferrari
#Sports Cars