The Purosangue Thread

I agree with you that an SUV is something different from the FF/GTC4. If the Purosangue will be just like a GTC4 but with an higher ride height, it can’t be classified as a Super SUV and will become eventually a super compact Cross-Over. However, if the Purosangue wants to be a real SUV, IMO there are at least two things that will have to distinguish it from the FF/GTC4. The unavoidable first one is the interior space that in an SUV has to enable five people to be fairly well accommodated while providing a good cargo space. The second one is the ride height that in an SUV has to be preferentially variable in order to allow on high ride a ground clearance sufficient to tackle heavy snow and most non-extreme off-road conditions. To become a Super SUV the Purosangue can borrow from the GTC4 the engine and the power-train, which are superior to the existing in any SUV, as well as the AWD system with some eventual improvements. But the Purosangue will need a completely new body design and with an interior volume a lot bigger than the one of the GTC4 and can't avoid having an adaptive air suspension of the latest generation that can move up and down at least 10 cm while using air springs that enable variable spring stiffness and which generate great anti-roll forces per axle.

Despite the considerable interior volume differences between the FF/GTC4 and even the smallest of the SUVs, Ferrari's big challenge with the Purosangue is to reinvent the SUV as we know it now in an innovative manner. If Ferrari isn’t able to reinvent the SUV the lesser evil will be a Purosangue GTC4 inspired resulting in a compact Cross-Over. The worst that could happen would be a Purosangue with a design that looks like any of the other SUVs.

 

The Purosangue can only be one of three different things. The first possibility is to be an FUV, the second an SUV and the third a Crossover. Ferrari is the only one who knows what an FUV is therefore the rest of us are unable to discuss this hypothesis due to lack of information. We then left with the possibility of discussing if the Purosangue will fall into the category of an SUV or a Crossover. The real problem starts when there is no commonly agreed-upon definition of what’s an SUV and a Crossover and usage of the terms varies greatly between countries. A Crossover is often defined as an SUV built with a unibody construction (as with passenger cars), however in many cases crossovers are simply referred to as SUVs. In some countries such as the United States SUVs have been classified as "light trucks”. Outside of the United States the term "Crossover" tends to be used for C-segment (compact) or smaller vehicles, with large unibody vehicles such as the Audi Q7, BMX X7 usually known as SUVs rather than Crossovers. In the United Kingdom a Crossover is sometimes defined as a hatchback with raised ride height and SUV-like styling features and that's also my definition.
After having made these considerations I can only reply to your post by saying that your concepts of what a Crossover and an SUV are probably differ from mine.

 

Congratulations for your new DBX and I believe that your decision of keeping the Lusso is a wise one. I’ve never seen a DBX on the flesh therefore I have to rely on pictures to form an opinion of how it looks and also trust what some of the more prestigious magazines said on their reviews about the car. The DBX reception has been positive and it is a performant, comfortable and eclectic SUV equipped with the latest technology. I don’t find the DBX a pretty car but it's not an exception because that’s exactly what I think about most of the SUVs. Despite not being enthusiastic about the DBX beauty I identified immediately the Aston Martin design seal when I first saw the pictures of the its front side.
The FF and the GTC4 have defined a new car category that IMO is the FUV. Now Ferrari wants to reincarnate the FUV by saying that the Purosangue will be one but unless its designers invent something that’s extraordinary and very innovative, in the end it will be just an SUV or a Crossover. Because the DBX is an SUV it suffers from one of the biggest design problems of SUVs which is when we view their sides almost all of them look similar to each other and very bulky. In the case of the DBX side profile to my eyes it is similar to the one of another British Crossover-SUV that was launched in 2018 and doesn’t have a combustion engine because is totally electric. The car is the Jaguar I-Pace and it houses under the bonnet just the charging cable. To show some of the similarities below I post three sets of pictures comparing the side views of the DBX and the I-PACE.
The first picture shows the DBX and the I-PACE side by side and it can be seen that both cars rear sides have many similarities. One of the differences is that the rear of the DBX has a kind of aileron very, very similar to the one on the Aston Martin Vantage.
The second picture shows the DBX side-by-side with an I-PACE that has cloned DBX wheels. The I-PACE looks much better with the DBX wheels that are les vulgar. The DBX bonnet houses a relatively big combustion engine and IMO is better designed than the bonnet of the I-PACE whose purpose is to house almost nothing. The third picture shows a DBX and an I-PACE that has a bonnet cloned from the DBX and now the two cars look very similar.

When the Purosangue will appear the first pictures I want to have a look at are the side views of the car and my hope is that they will show something innovative that doesn’t look like what we see in most SUVs and Crossovers. If the pictures will show vulgarity I’m convinced that I won’t have difficulty in discovering within the existing SUVS and Crossovers at least one that has a side profile similar to the one of the Purosangue.

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The FUV already exists and it's just a matter of art to transform it into a Purosangue…..




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Ferrari ended production of the GTC4 Lusso despite it being considered something exotic, engaging, practical and without competition. It has four seats, a usable boot, four-wheel drive, rear-wheel steering and has a version with a fantastic V12 engine 690 cv. Why then has Ferrari discontinued this GTC4 FUV ? The only possible reason I can think about is the upcoming Purosangue FUV. Considering that the FF/GTC4 have established a unique and very successful car category, IMO the Purosangue shouldn’t be an SUV or a crossover but just an FUV that’s a clever evolution of the GTC4.

Without bothering with the design and the aesthetics let’s just suppose, for the sake of argument, that the pictures below are of an Purosangue FUV. A car with an air suspension and variable ride heights that one can enjoy driving, like a GTC4 on good roads dry or wet, but also like an SUV on bad roads, on heavy snow or in the absence of roads. A car that has four-doors and a bigger boot and an interior space to seat comfortably 5 persons.

For all the appointed reasons the GTC4 is a great source of inspiration for the upcoming Purosangue and Ferrari designers should use the exact same formula that made the FF such an original and successful car when was created. No matter what Ferrari does I’m convinced that a good design with originality will be the clue to make the Purosangue a winner.



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