PONY EXPRESS

Through snow and mud and mountains, the Ferrari Purosangue SUV is a speed machine By Hannah Elliott Photographs by Alberto Bernasconi

- Chris Rovzar

I knew my car had made an impression when the portly construction worker I passed in Pinzolo, Italy, made that sig-nature gesture Italian men do where they shake their hand at the wrist, like they’ve just touched something too hot.

SUVs don’t often generate fiery ardor. But the 2023 Ferrari Purosangue, the automaker’s first four-door vehicle, had that precise effect as I drove through the ski town three hours north of Milan.

Signore must have liked the sinewy air ducts set like suspension bridges on each side of the hood. Or the guttural growl of the V-12 engine. Maybe it was the sloping roofline, 23-inch wheels and sizzling vermilion paint that caught his eye.

I get it. The $393,000 Purosangue (PUR-o-SAN-way, it’s Italian for “thoroughbred,” literally “pure blood”) is a smoldering hulk of metal, carbon and supercar heart aimed at taking down its closest competitor in the segment—the $230,000 Lamborghini Urus—as the top performance luxury SUV.

After 12 hours behind the wheel in the Dolomites, a day that included driving offroad on snow, on alpine switchbacks and on broad expressways, I can report that it doesn’t knock the Urus from the throne. The Urus has a better overall combination of performance, value and faithfulness to design heritage. But for Ferrari fans the Purosangue will still set pulses racing. It will even attract some new admirers.

If you follow Ferrari at all, you know the carmaker pretty much has everything: sold-out order books and record sales in 2022; margins that rivals including Porsche and Mercedes-Benz can’t touch; and riotous hybrid supercars such as the 296 GTB, SF90 Stradale and LaFerrari.