FERRARI PUROSANGUE

IS IT ANY SURPRISE THAT MARANELLO TAKES 'PEAK SUV' AND RAISES IT?

- JOHN CAREY

NO FERRARI before it has ever had so many doors, so much ground clearance, so much luggage space, or such a good audio system as the Purosangue. But the question of whether these attributes somehow sully the status of the prancing horse badge it wears isn't bothering me right now. Not at all...

The Purosangue's pipes bark twice as it blips down two gears while I brake for the looming hairpin. Like the others on this road snaking to the top of Monte Bondone, west of Trento in the Alpine north of Italy, it's fringed by remnants of recent snow and liberally dusted with grit.

Almost five metres long and a little more than two metres wide, the Purosangue casts a hefty shadow. Even so, it doesn't take too much turning of the perfectly weighted steering to point its haughty nose at the apex.

Winter tyres, like the massive Michelins the Purosangue is wearing, are never as grippy as summer rubber. The gritty surface is also, obviously, slippery. So driving out of the tight left-hander I'm prudent with pressure on the throttle pedal.

Not prudent enough, it turns out. Despite my caution the Purosangue's rear steps sideways. It's not a total surprise, so I'm ready to dial in a delicate dab of opposite lock. But even as I do it, I sense the car's chassis control electronics already reacting. Deftly and decisively. They're subtle enough to make this minor moment quite graceful.

Accelerating uphill away from the hairpin the Purosangue's V12 sings to somewhere in the middle of its very broad rev range before the double-clutch shifts up a gear. In Auto mode the transmission seems clairvoyant, able to almost instantly sense every change in the driver's mood.