TENSION can often be good and sometimes bad. Like when flirting at a bar, or hanging a heavy thing on a thin rope, respectively. And this Ferrari GTC4Lusso is all about balancing tensions.

Ferrari has confessed that the FF launched in 2012 was a polarising design. The brand’s four-seat four-wheel-drive configuration remains with this facelifted GTC4Lusso, but you would not know it from the overhauled styling inside and out. There are tensions here, about how best to mix new infotainment features and luxury, with traditional Maranello virtues, in a better way than before.

With Ferrari refusing to build SUVs, but with booming SUV sales, there is also a strain on how far the GTC4Lusso can take the brand in a practical direction without sacrificing core values between touring comfort and V12 aggression, and between focused dynamics and a breadth of ability.

For almost $600,000 this GTC4Lusso really needs to grapple with such friction in a positive way.

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