In this day and age, it’s common to see renowned manufacturers dip their toes in more practical form factors. We’re seeing super SUVs from the likes of Lamborghini and Aston Martin, while brands like Porsche, Audi, and BMW have been slowly perfecting their formulas.

Then comes along Ferrari with its Purosangue. Yes, the automaker absolutely refuses to call it an SUV, officially calling it a four-seater, four-door car. All that fluff aside, this car brings upon many firsts to the brand, like how it’s the first ever four-door Ferrari (not if you count the one-off 456 GT Venice), and it has one key thing that truly makes it worthy to wear the Cavallino Rampante.

Despite jokes about it looking like a Mazda CX-30 or a Toyota Crown Sport, the exterior design is still something to behold.

The designers did well to hide the girth of what would normally be a huge slab of metal with clever styling cues. But those fender flares and kinks on the side aren’t just there to shrink the side profile—those are sculpted carbon-fiber bits that help out with the aerodynamics.

The same can be said about the “headlights,” which are actually clever ducts with a slim DRL strip. The actual lighting can be found in the bumper, which is surrounded by even more grilles and carbon.

The humongous staggered wheels (22 inches at the front, 23 at the rear) make the side profile look very proportionate, and even the rear glass has two kinks molded into them, hinting at the buttresses you see in other Ferraris.

Does it look like an SUV? No. It just looks like the evolution of an FF and a GTC4 Lusso. Just bigger.

With only a set of flush door handles visible, one might wonder how to get into the rear. There are two tiny tabs by the B-pillar that you push to engage the coach doors (okay, suicide doors). They also open themselves all the way, but they have sensors to prevent them from hitting whatever’s next to them.

And behold, it’s a genuinely spacious Ferrari that can comfortably seat four adults. In the cream-colored, leather-upholstered cabin lie four individual bucket seats. All but the tallest Filipino adults (hello, Kai Sotto) will have problems fitting inside due to the sloping roofline.

The “dual-cockpit” approach gives off a very satisfying feeling of symmetry, though one may also say that it’s a cost-saving measure for countries that drive on the other side of the road. And if you look for physical buttons, well, there aren’t many. Welcome to the 2020s.

There’s no center screen. A large driver’s display has all of your info, like the digital tachometer and the configurable screens. You interact with it via two touch zones on the steering wheel, which has proven to be finicky and frustrating to use, especially with how laggy the interface is.

Heck, even your Apple CarPlay shows up on this screen, and that mode just pushes everything else to the side of the display.

Want my two cents? Set aside a few hours, configure everything, and never go through the menus again. Just have CarPlay up for your maps. That’s it.

At least things are a little better for the passenger. Dead center is your touch-sensitive climate control, including a rotary dial with an embedded screen that can rise up to make it easier to control, but it’s more for show.

And right in front of the passenger is a 10.2-inch touchscreen that he/she can use to display a tachometer or control media. And yes, the interface is still laggy.

Rear passengers only have climate vents; that same glitzy climate control knob that can also control the electrochromic glass roof; and a pair of concealed cupholders. Plus, there’s 473L of cargo space, with a lot more once you fold the rear seats flat.

So, it’s more lush and tech-heavy than your average Italian sports car. It carries four adults and their cargo comfortably. And all-wheel-drive. Obviously, it has more utility than a supercar.

The engine under the hood is what allows Ferrari to bank on its heritage. It crammed a mid-front-mounted 6.5-liter naturally aspirated V12 under that beautiful clamshell hood, and gave it handling chops to match. Even the amazing Burmester sound system inside is no match for the smooth wail of a performance-tuned 12-cylinder engine.

With 725hp and 716Nm going through an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, I was expecting it to be even more terrifying than the Roma Spider that I drove a few months back. But believe it or not, the entire driving experience was very, very smooth and easy. Almost too easy, in fact.

The startup is surprisingly muted, and giving it some revs sounds like a woosh rather than a roar. Upon setting off, I didn’t have to worry about maneuvering it like some jackass over speed bumps because it sits 185mm off the ground (plus a lifter kit should I need extra clearance).

The dual-clutch transmission was on the smoother side even at lower speeds, and the steering was surprisingly light. Where’s the fear/thrill of driving a Ferrari?

On a road that was closed off specifically for this event, a colleague and I decided to give it some beans. Flooring it from a dead stop did push us into our seats a bit, but without the same ferocity that an EV or a turbocharged engine delivers.

The speedometer just kept climbing and climbing at an alarming rate after we passed 100km/h. Truly the hallmark of normal aspiration. Naturally, those huge carbon-ceramic Brembo brakes must do well to slow down a two-ton vehicle going at high speeds. Otherwise, a lot of owners will find themselves in the hospital or sitting at the pearly gates.

While we weren’t able to push the vehicle at the nearby Clark International Speedway, the active suspension felt like black magic. We called it an engineering marvel, but feeling a vehicle of this size and weight repress body roll in the corners and still manage to not handle like a boat was stunning. And the best part about all of it was that it was bloody comfortable.

And there you have it. The Purosangue is not the super SUV that many of you might think it to be.

It may have the performance credentials to match its peers, but this is oriented toward grand touring—comfortable, effortless long drives, all done with the flavor that only a Ferrari can deliver. And with at least a three-year waiting list despite its astronomical price tag, this shows that this “blasphemous” creation is just what the market wanted and actually ordered.