And so after countless spy shots and numerous articles documenting the development of Ferrari’s first-ever SUV, the Purosangue (will they really call it that?) has finally been leaked and it’s, erm, a big Ferrari?…
Let’s face it, the Ferrari purists were never going to be happy with this one, but it was never for them, you see. Porsche purists were rather cross when the Cayenne was announced and even more cross when wraps first came off the 955 (first-generation) Porsche Cayenne. 20 years on, the Cayenne has aged gracefully, and Porsche’s profits have gone through the roof. You see, building an SUV might not be what Ferdinand, Ferruccio or indeed Enzo had originally envisioned, but none of those men would have believed you if you were to tell them that certain people of the future would purposefully wear one-piece rubber shoes named Crocs. They could never have imagined the world in which their brands would exist decades after their departures from this earthly toil, and whether one likes it or not, in order for a sportscar brand to remain profitable, it needs to produce a product for the masses.
What doing so allows manufacturers to do, then, is divert significant amounts of the profit created by mainstream vehicles towards the development of the things we actually want from these brands – performance cars. The 992 GT3 is the car it is today thanks to the success of both Cayenne and Macan models. Lamborghini seem to be on a similar streak here and hopefully Aston Martin’s financials reflect the benefit of this trend, too. Even Rolls-Royce did an SUV and look at what that did to their bank balance/development budgets.
Ironically, Purosangue directly translated means “thoroughbred” which doesn’t quite make sense for a vehicle which strays so far from Ferrari’s bread and butter. Unless they understand that this is very likely to become their new bread and butter. While we can’t quite see the side of the vehicle, it looks a little like a Roma and a GTC4 Lusso bred, finished off with some very strong 298 GTB familial cues such as the new taillights. It also looks a little like a hatchback, but a fast one. Think stretched Volvo V40 CC, but with a V12.
No word yet on pricing or exact availability, but order books have been open for a while and because it has a Ferrari badge on it, people have been putting deposits down for something which they had neither seen, nor which they knew the price of…
