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SMOOTH, beautiful thing. Automotive libido at its best. Modest? No way. The 1987 Lincoln Mark VII LSC is a nice piece of work.

Perfect? Nahhh. Hardly anything on four wheels is perfect. This one has some flaws, but not enough to ruin the overall impression.

Ford Motor Co. has scored more points here. The company that gave us the generally excellent Taurus and Sable family-mobiles here brings us a luxury sports coupe — LSC, see? — that lives up to its name.

The LSC’s luxury is admirably functional stuff. Even the heated outside mirrors make common sense. You don’t have to get out and wipe these mirrors on miserably cold days. They don’t fog over. They don’t ice up.

Performance? It’s here, with enough tubular headers, low-friction roller tappets and other hardware to keep the most avid technoid happy. The LSC also has an anti-lock breaking system that helps prevent the car from skidding crazily over slippery wet roads. Safe.

Who knows? The way things are going, the LSC might be one of the few bits of pleasure you can have in this life without having to worry too much about the consequences.

Complaints: The test model stalled several times at idling engine speeds, ranging from 800 rpm to about 1,100 rpm. Several mechanics suggested changing the timing. One suggested that, because the LSC’s 5-liter, V-8 engine is fuel-injected, I change the gasoline. The latter suggestion was cheapest and it seemed to work.

Also, the needle on the fuel gauge took a few wild dips. (But the LSC is equipped with a support system — a computerized digital display that tells you how many miles you can run before running out of gas. This worked perfectly.)

Praise: The thoughtfulness of it all. The instrument panel is a la flight cockpit — all dials, buttons and displays wrapped around you, all easily reachable and visible. The overhead, electronic compass is a godsend for those of us who have difficulty telling north from south, let alone northwest from southeast.

Ride, acceleration, handling: Credit the LSC’s automatic leveling control and computerized four-corner, air-spring suspension system for terrific ride and handling. People who love driving couches won’t like this one. And those automotive masochists who aren’t happy until they’ve been bounced all over the asphalt won’t like it either. What you get here is a steady, firm ride.

The LSC’s highway acceleration easily matches that of more expensive, comparably equipped European models.

Head-turning-quotient: Sexy. No other way to say it. However, it still retains that ridiculous spare-tire-hump design in the trunk lid — a yellowing page from the annals of Detroit’s automotive sophistry.

Sound system: AM/FM stereo radio and cassette with electronic tuning. Ford Premium Sound. Excellent.

Mileage: About 19 per gallon (22.1-gallon tank), combined city-highway, running driver only and with heater on m ost of the time. The engine had less than 700 miles use at delivery, which might have affected mileage.

Price-as-tested: $26,476, with less than $1,000 in options. Price includes a $524 destination and handling charge. Grin and drive it.