Ferrari Uses Software to Sell a Sharper-Handling Purosangue

Car and Driver drove the Ferrari Purosangue Handling Speciale and was both impressed with and surprised at the handling improvements that came from software alone:

That’s right: The Purosangue HS achieves its speciale handling with no new parts in the suspension. It even rides on the same Pirelli P Zero summer tires (sized 255/35R-22 in front and 315/30R-23 at the rear) as your blue-collar neighbor’s base Purosangue. Thanks to the Purosangue’s TrueActive Spool Valve (TASV) adaptive dampers—sourced from race shop and occasional Ford GT builders Multimatic—Ferrari is able to sharpen the Handling Speciale’s responses with just a little bit of new software. By spinning a 48-volt electric motor to drive a ball screw in line with each damper, the TASV suspension varies damping force and adjusts ride height at each corner individually 20 times every second. Rewriting the code governing how the TASV dampers behave reduces the Purosangue’s body movement by a claimed 10 percent.

The only hardware that differentiates the Handling Speciale is cosmetic: dark-gray wheels with diamond-cut accents, an interior plaque, carbon-fiber shields, matte-black exhaust tips, and revised badge finishes. The package’s pricing hasn’t been announced, but C/D said it’s rumored to be $50,000.

Some percentage of Ferrari clients will almost certainly pay for this package. People complain about the idea of paying extra for software that changes what the same hardware can do, but as they did with computer and phone apps and subscription services, many may acclimate if they find the experience valuable. Ferrari will be able to charge more without adding much hardware cost, while the rest of the industry can point to an example of how much is being charged for what is mostly a software upgrade.