We drove the first four-door Ferrari

Times change, also at Ferrari. The brand with the “Cavallino Rampante” has been the epitome of the Italian sports car for the racetrack or weekend trips since its inception, which fans around the world dream of, there are more and more customers who also want to drive a Ferrari in everyday life. And don’t want to do without practical amenities such as four doors, four seats and a large trunk. Be it to go on a skiing holiday to St. Moritz in winter or to a country house in Tuscany in summer. With the Purosangue, the right bullet is now available from Maranello.

The heart of a Ferrari is the engine. And here the Italians go all out again, relying on their grandiose, free-breathing 6.5-liter V12, which also inspires the 812 Superfast. It delivers 725 hp in the Purosangue, and 80 percent of the maximum torque is already available from 2100 rpm. That’s enough to accelerate from a standing start to 100 km/h in 3.3 seconds and to reach a top speed well in excess of 300 km/h.

In the Dolomites, where we were able to test drive the Purosangue for the first time, the way the thoroughbred performs on winding roads is particularly impressive. Thanks to all-wheel drive, roll compensation and an almost perfect weight distribution of 49:51 percent, the Purosangue drives like it’s on rails and never falters, even on wet roads. The sound of the twelve cylinders is also a pleasure: a Ferrari in 2023 may not roar like it did ten or 20 years ago. Nevertheless, the engineers managed to make the Purosangue put a smile on the driver’s face when accelerating, braking or downshifting.

You don’t notice its dimensions when driving, and even when parked, it is extremely beefy and surprisingly compact with a width of 2.03 meters and a height of 1.59 meters. Nevertheless, it offers up to four passengers significantly more space than, for example, a GTC4Lusso already did. People over 1.90 meters tall can sit comfortably on the two rear individual seats, and the luggage for four travelers also fits into the trunk. Incidentally, boarding is particularly easy because the rear doors open in opposite directions. And the seats lined with Alcantara are not only comfortable, but also sustainable.
The Purosangue also makes a big leap forward when it comes to infotainment: the Italians have given up developing their own navigation system and instead consistently rely on Apple Carplay and Android Auto. The driver can have all the information displayed directly in front of him on the speedometer screen. And the passenger can also see how fast the driver is traveling and much more on a 10.2-inch screen.

Anyone who has now acquired a taste for it and wants a Ferrari Purosangue needs patience as well as a well-stocked wallet. The base price of the new draft horse from Maranello is 409,000 francs in Switzerland – without extras, of course. And yet Ferrari is overrun by customers, the waiting time is currently around 18 months.