Ferrari Purosangue Handling Speciale review – sharper V12 SUV to face the Aston Martin DBX S
Ferrari has retuned the Purosangue’s sophisticated Multimatic dampers to sharpen up its super SUV. We take a drive
Three years after its introduction and probably with some customer feedback to work with, Ferrari has made its first changes to the Purosangue. This is the HS, or Handling Speciale, and most of the work has centred on a retune of the sophisticated active dampers, with the objective of making the Purosangue even more dynamic. There are a number of visual signifiers too, including a matt black finish for the tailpipes and the prancing horse badge at the rear, plus diamond-cut alloys and unique, carbon-backed side shields, yet Ferrari says it’s a configuration rather than a new model.
Mechanically it’s exactly the same as before, with the 715bhp, 6.5-litre, naturally aspirated V12 set well behind the front axle line, connected to an eight-speed DCT transaxle at the rear, helping achieve a sports GT-like weight distribution of 49:51 front-to-rear. The wheels and tyres are unchanged, but the Handling Speciale pack leverages more of the ability and capacity of the wonderfully complex and effective Multimatic active dampers.
Ferrari says they now reduce body movements by 10 per cent while maintaining ride quality, with extra agility unlocked by using the rear dampers to act as a stiffer virtual anti-roll bar, helping turn-in. As an indication of the shift in dynamism, Ferrari’s chief test driver, Raffaele de Simone, says Comfort mode in the Handling Speciale is equivalent to Sport in the original Purosangue.
There are a couple of other tweaks: gearbox shift speeds are 25 per cent faster for snappier responses in Race, ESC Off and manual modes, and the roar of the V12 is more present in the cockpit when it’s being worked hard. We'll get to do plenty of that, albeit within the confines of the Balocco test track in northern Italy.
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This is my first time in a Purosangue and it feels wide but lower-slung than, say, an Aston Martin DBX, while right from the off there’s a slack-free directness to the steering and a roll-free feel to the chassis. We’re on the inner handling circuit, which is a bit like a British B-road with its mix of fast and slow corners and challenging dips and crests. Happily I have a guide: ahead is another Purosangue, setting the pace, which gradually builds.
Working the V12 increasingly hard, it sounds at least as loud as it does in the 12 Cilindri, delivering a proper growl as it gets its shoulder behind the 2.2-ton mass of the Purosangue. It’s not a small car, but from behind the wheel it doesn’t feel big and disguises its mass pretty well too. There’s a compression, a downhill left-hander that puts a massive load into the car, but the Purosangue soaks it up and manages to find the exact steered line every time. It can’t quite defy gravity, though: a couple of corners earlier there’s an abruptly cresting right and, with the pace picking up, I watch the Purosangue ahead lift its inside front wheel then feel my car do the same, but there’s no drama.
The Purosangue’s composure at these extremes instils confidence, and tacking into flat turns with increasing speed and commitment the front end is direct and seemingly undefeatable, but given this model’s name you’d expect more, and there is. Up the mode from Comfort to Sport and you can sense a shift in the car’s behaviour. Now when you commit hard to a turn you can feel the car rotate more and take up a balance that suggests the rear will adopt a bit of attitude if pushed harder.
Up the mode to Race and it’s there for the taking. Pick up the throttle as the rear tips into the turn and the car takes an angle comfortably. It’s not the most vivid of feedback through seat and wheel, but you know where you are with it, and with plenty of revs to play with – up to 8250rpm from the magnificent, bellowing V12 – in a long corner you can keep the oversteer angle for quite a long time, up to the point when you can hear and feel the drivetrain start to send drive to the front wheels. What helps make it feel natural and easy is that the steering has a high ratio, so there’s not much lock to be wound on and you know where the centre is to come back to. Just as importantly, the car comes back to full grip as easily as it starts to slide, with very little bounce-back.
Great seats help, and all four occupants get their own deeply bolstered chair, though I suspect the elevated dynamic modes would be for solo drives. For me, the brakes are a little abrupt, the step-in a bit sharp, and there’s a lot of road roar on coarse surfaces, though as far as we can tell the ride hasn’t suffered.
It’s still a big, heavy car, and ultimately you can’t escape that, but with a little consideration of the mass, you can place it just where you want it, and it’s also remarkably playful with a few degrees of opposite lock dialled in, as easy to read and ride out and gather up as a smaller, lighter, simpler car.
Price and rivals
If you buy the Handling Speciale pack, that’s surely a bit of what you’re after? It’s not inexpensive at £16,450, but that doesn’t look too much weighed against the Purosangue’s list price of over £313k, so why wouldn’t you tick the box? The only reason we can come up with would be tyre wear…
Where things get complicated for the Purosangue HS, or indeed the standard car, is price. Yes, it's unique in offering a V12 but does that justify the c/£120k premium you'll pay for it over an Aston Martin DBX S? It too features a bespoke platform and a sweet, surprisingly engaging set-up. A Lamborghini Urus SE Performante too, might not have the bespoke feel, but has the badge, presence and certainly performance punch to match.
