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The 1997 Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT is an economy car with a bully’s demeanor. I was tempted to drive it the way it looks — until I remembered Lil’ Man.

Happened this way: Lil’ Man — real name, Earl — was a seventh-grade classmate at Holy Redeemer School in New Orleans. He was a short, barrel-chested fellow with a foul mouth and quick fists. One day, he crossed the line. He said something nasty to Sister Mary Vincent, our teacher.

Sister Mary Vincent called Lil’ Man’s mother — who wasn’t at all little — who came to the school and beat his bottom in front of God and everybody. Lil’ Man cried. He wasn’t such a bully after that.

Which brings up the four-wheel-drive Legacy 2.5 GT. This is a wannabe-badd car, as in: “Ahm badd, ahm badd. . . .” It has sporty wheels, a scooped hood– and an air spoiler wing atop its trunk lid.

Problem is, its looks are writing checks its engine can’t cash. Ditto its transmission and suspension, which are quite decent, but in no way hip, tough or talented enough to keep up with real sports cars. Cross the line in this one and you could wind up with more than a sore butt.

Background: The Subaru Legacy is a good car — a good family car. It’s been a strong seller for Subaru. In fact, it helped return that once-struggling company to profitability. But success, in this case, has gone to Subaru’s head.

The company figures that it can sell more models of the Legacy by creating one with a sportin’ life personality. This is akin to taking a kid out of the deepest, safest suburbs, wrapping him in baggy jeans, giving him a crash course in street lingo and dropping him, say, in the middle of the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago.

It just doesn’t work.

The Legacy 2.5 GT’s scooped hood looks forced. The sporty wheels seem out of place. The rear air spoiler looks silly.

What does work — for normal commuting and longer family trips — is the car’s upgraded, horizontally opposed four-cylinder, 16-valve, double overhead-cam, 2.5-liter engine.

That engine is rated at 165 horsepower at 5,600 rpm, with torque rated at 162 horsepower at 4,000 rpm. That means it provides as much oomph as some six-cylinder models, which are all the rage in family cars nowadays.

Besides the GT, the Legacy LSi sedans and Outback wagons get the 2.5-liter boxer engine as standard equipment. A 2.2-liter, four-cylinder, 16-valve, single overhead-cam engine is standard in the base Legacy L sedan and the Legacy Brighton station wagon. That smaller four-banger is rated at 137 horsepower at 5,400 rpm, with torque rated at 145 hp at4,000 rpm.

In addition to the hood scoop and other aero stuff on the Legacy 2.5 GT, you get a standard power tilt/slide moon roof, halogen fog lamps and, um, “sports tailpipe.”

Other standard mechanical features in the Legacy 2.5 GT sedan include a five-speed manual transmission, power four-wheel-disc brakes with anti-lock backup and a fully independent suspension system featuri ng anti-rollbars front and rear.

An electronically controlled, four-speed automatic transmission is optional.

Dual front air bags, of course, are standard. But if you treat the Legacy 2.5 GT as a family car instead of some kind of sportsmobile, those bags are likely to remain where they are — packed tightly in the steering wheel hub and under a cover on the passenger-side dashboard.

1997 Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT

Complaints: The aero-sport gimcrackery demeans the quiet, comfortable dignity of an otherwise fine family hauler.

Praise: Absent the aero junk, the Legacy 2.5 GT offers almost everything anyone could want in a compact fam-mobile. Assembly quality is excellent. The car seats five people in reasonable comfort. Traction is excellent in good and foul weather and on paved and unpaved roads.

Head-turning quotient: Oh, grow up already!

Ride, acceleration, handling, shifting: Very good compact/small car ride. Handles bumpy roads nicely. Acceleration is decent enough for lane changes, but the engine literally begins to whine at speeds above 65 miles per hour. Braking was excellent. The gearshift lever could be smoother, but it’s acceptable as is.

Mileage: About24 miles per gallon (15.9-gallon tank, estimated 370-mile range on usable volume of recommended regular unleaded gasoline, combined city-highway, running with one to two occupants and light cargo).

Sound system: Four-speaker AM/FM stereo radio and cassette with compact disc. Installed by Subaru. Very good.

Price: Base price on the Legacy 2.5 GT with five-speed manual transmission is $22,795.Dealer invoice on that model is $20,453. Price as tested is $23,710, including $420 for the upgraded sound system and a $495 destination charge.

Purse-strings note: Compare with Legacy L and LSi sedans, the Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique, Chrysler Cirrus/Dodge Stratus/ Plymouth Breeze, Nissan Altima, Volkswagen Golf/Jetta, Toyota Corolla/Geo Prizm, Saturn SL2 sedan, Hyundai Sonata.