Ferrari Purosangue

FIRST DRIVE Italian brand's all-new 'four-seat sports car' is every bit as spectacular to drive as it looks. Just don't call it an SUV

- Steve Sutcliffe

IT'S the car they said they'd never make at Maranello. Yet here it is, Ferrari's brand-new SUV - all 715bhp, £313,000, and 2.2 tonnes of it.

Except, according to Ferrari, the Purosangue isn't an SUV at all. Instead, it's a "four-seater, four-door sports car" that just so happens to be four-wheel drive and has a centre of gravity several inches higher than any other Ferrari in history.

It also has a hatchback tailgate opening in place of a traditional boot, two back seats, and although its rear doors do open rather intriguingly - they hinge forwards, not backwards, to give a "uniquely welcoming entry experience", according to their designers - the packaging isn't great. The boot, for instance, is luxuriantly trimmed, but also unusually small for an SUV. Not that the Purosangue is an SUV, remember.

Whatever the case, and however you choose to define it (as a sports car, as an SUV, or an intriguing hybrid of the two), it is a radical departure for the brand in both its design and its intended audience. As such, and no matter how Ferrari might choose to spin it, the Purosangue's closest rivals are indeed SUVs; so think Lamborghini Urus, Aston Martin DBX 707, Range Rover SV, Rolls-Royce Cullinan, and the list goes on.

But does it deliver on its promise, is it worth the astonishing amount of money it costs, and is it sufficiently spectacular to drive to justify its eye-watering price? Broadly speaking, the answer to all three of those questions is yes, but in each instance there is - inevitably - a caveat.

Before we go into any detailed conclusions, however, let's talk a bit more about what lies beneath, because from an engineering perspective, the Purosangue is a mightily impressive machine. It also looks pretty spectacular in the flesh, too.