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The Golden Gate Bridge, the Pacific Ocean, Alcatraz and homes built into mountainsides.

Perfect setting for Ford Motor Co. to introduce its coming 1995 Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique compact sedans to the media without any distractions.

The cars, which go on sale this fall, have been called replacements for the Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz, the stodgiest cars in the Ford lineup outside the Escort.

Hardly.

Try running a Tempo up one of these hills and an oxygen mask would have to drop from the ceiling to give you and the car the energy to make it.

Drive a Tempo over the bridge and you’d involuntarily switch lanes while trying to hold the too-softly-sprung road wanderer in place.

Run a Topaz along the twisting, winding, hilly oceanfront highway and you’d have to keep one hand on the wheel, the other planted on the motion sickness bag-or bags.

Tempo/Topaz were state of the art when paint-by-number was the industry standard. Contour and Mystique are so far superior in ride, handling and performance, it would be an injustice to admit both sprouted from the same family tree.

Contour/Mystique are companions to the Ford Mondeo that went on sale this year in Europe and rivals to the new Chrysler Cirrus/Dodge Stratus (Cartalk, June 6) compact replacements for the Dodge Spirit and Plymouth Acclaim coming out for 1995, too. Rather than let someone rush out and place a deposit on a Cirrus/Stratus, Ford hopes they’ll wander over to a Ford or Lincoln-Mercury dealer, checkbook in hand.

Ford calls its new pair of compacts “global vehicles for the next millenium,” which, it seems, is about the period Tempo/Topaz suffered without technological update or styling change.

Global means anyone in any country with a Ford ID tag pinned to the lapel supposedly had a role in the design, development, engineering, manufacturing, marketing and sale of the cars. Global sounds better than the trite “team effort.”

The price tag for the effort was $6 billion, but included two new cars, two new engines and two new transmissions. Still, mention the $6 billion investment and Ford folks quiver over why the outlay was roughly equal to the cost for General Motors to bring out a new Saturn division. If you’ve ever seen a Ford person quiver, it’s not pretty.

Contour will come in base LX, GL, and sporty SE versions; Mystique in base GS and luxury LS versions. You can get a 2-liter, 125-horsepower, 16-valve, 4-cylinder, which replaces the 2.3-liter, 98-h.p. 4, or a 2.5-liter, 170-h.p., 24-valve, V-6, which replaces the 3-liter, 130-h.p., 12-valve, V-6. Both 5-speed manual and 4-speed automatic are available. The V-6 boasts 100,000 miles before needing a tune.

Tire choices are Goodyear or Michelin 14- or 15-inch all seasons. The Goodyears are a bit more aggressive, the Michelins more comfy for touring, but either in 15- inch version is better than 14-inch for optimal ride and handling.

Dual air bags are standard, anti-lock brakes and traction control are optional. Ford officials said ABS isn’t standard because folks in Texas really don’t need it, which is the first time since Henry Ford II passed away that a vote of 49 to 1 means 1 wins. And they make jokes about Chicago politics!

Front- and rear-end designs are distinctive enough to separate the two cars. Personal opinion is that the Contour got the designer’s first choice. (The Chrysler Cirrus is still more appealing.)

One reason it’s unfair to mention Contour/Mystique with Tempo/Topaz is that Contour/Mystique are built on the same 106.9-inch wheelbase as Taurus/Sable, which is considerably longer than the 99.9 inches on Tempo/Topaz. Contour/Mystique are 183.9 inches long versus 192 inches on Taurus/Sable and 177 inches on Tempo/Topaz.

We tested a variety of cars here. Some thoughts on each:

– Contour SE with the 5-speed manual and 4-speed automatic: For maneuvering hairpin turns along California’s coastal Highway 1, the 5-speed is preferred. You can downshift and upshift to get just the braking/acceleration you need. And the 5-speed is exceptionally smooth. There’s no hesitation or balkiness, and the throws between gears are very short. Only drawback is that at times fifth gear is vexing to find.

The automatic was quiet and smooth and didn’t seem to rob the V-6 of energy. But when traveling from sea level to 7,000 feet and back again, the 5-speed handle is a great security blanket.

The SE features a larger rear stabilizer bar, higher spring rates and specially tuned struts for performance ride and handling. With 5-speed or automatic, the SE acts very much like a Taurus SHO, though we have to suspect for far less money. No prices yet but the hinted Contour/Mystique range is $15,000 to $19,000, with SE at the $19,000 end.

One problem with the SE, however. The optional leather seats are a tad slippery in very aggressive driving. Also, the side-wing bolsters feel like bricks digging into your armpits. The wings on the standard cloth seats are supportive yet much softer.

The SE is a tamer production version of the high-performance Contour Profile concept car on this year’s auto-show circuit. That’s not to rule out a more robust Profile-like model, sources said, because a Contour has been turned over to Ford’s Special Vehicle Operations team for some tinkering.

“Will we have a hot-dog version in the U.S.? I don’t know, but we do have one in Europe,” Ford Chairman Alex Trotman told us.

– Mercury Mystique LS with 2.5-liter, V-6, automatic and 15-inch tires: Very responsive and precise steering. Honda Accord has fingertip light steering but response is more vague. Mystique goes where you point it without lingering. You can pull into and out of a curve without the body swinging out and fighting gravity to return. Stiffer sidewalls on the 15-inch tires help as does the four-wheel independent suspension, which has very good rebound control, meaning when you hit a bump you quickly return to level without bouncing a lot. You don’t get a lot of vibration or harshness fed through the wheel or the seat.

The car features self-stabilizing geometry for more accurate braking, steering and cornering control. Ford said self-stabilizing basically means the rear end automatically acts in directional harmony with the front.

The V-6 handles the hills without gasping for air, and the engine and transmission are very quiet.

– Mystique LS with 2-liter, 4-cylinder engine and 5-speed manual: You feel a need for more power shortly after you start up a hill. The 4-cylinder is designed for mileage not performance. The 5-speed is slippery smooth but a 5-speed can’t make an Indy car out of a go-cart.

– Contour LX with V-6 and 4-speed automatic: The V-6/automatic combo will account for most sales. It’s the best for performance/mileage without the aggravation of a manual for those who labor through rush-hour traffic.

Contour/Mystique feature great visibility; adjustable safety belts in the pillars; arrows on the dash to point to the fuel filler door on the right side; glove box doors that open slowly and don’t drop on the passenger’s knees; wide-opening trunk lids and deep, spacious cargo holds; a button in the trunk to release the rear seat backs for more cargo space (not in GL); rocker panels covered with plastic film to prevent stone chips; solar tint glass to help keep down interior heat; single or dual popup cupholders in the center console; and a special micron air filter to reduce irritants in the passenger cabin by removing particles as tiny as 3 microns in diameter (a human hair is 50 microns in diameter). But you’ll have to change the filter once a year at cost of about $20.

Some annoyances: A prop-held hood and an extremely tight engine compartment that requires the battery to be wrapped in a heat shield. Also, we found the window sticker in a couple of glove boxes. Prices were missing, but the options in each car were extensive, hinting that Ford may promote low base prices to attract buyers, who then have to load the car with costly creature comforts that will boost the total.

By the way, ABS will run $600, traction control $250, automatic transmission $750. That’s $1,600 in common options you’ll have to add to any base price.

Ford said it expects to sell 180,000 Contours and 80,000 Mystiques annually. That’s considerably less than the 235,000 Tempo and 100,000 Topaz cars it sells annually, but Ford said output will be constrained because one of the two Tempo/Topaz assembly plants that was going to build Contour/Mystique was converted to production of the Windstar mini-van.