Is the Mercury Cougar an ugly car? We're sure there are thousands of you out there willing to enter pitched battle over the question of the Cougar's styling versus the Thunderbird's styling. We, on the other hand, have been prudently sidestepping this volatile issue for the past year by pointing out that only the T-Bird comes with Ford's powerful and economical turbocharged 2.3-liter engine.

       The turbo four-cylinder is one of Ford's finer engines (if a bit noisy): an excellent 145-horsepower dynamo that sent the 3100-pound T-Bird Turbo Coupe from 0 to 60 in 9.1 seconds, registered a top speed of 123 miles per hour, and delivered 19 of its EPA-rated 22 miles per gallon under the severest of C/D's test conditions. Adding up the Turbo Coupe's fine engine, slick shifting five-speed transmission, fat set o Goodyear Eagle GT's, handling suspension, and especially fine sport seats, you'd have been mentally deficient to consider a Cougar or a civilian T-Bird last year.

       Well, good news abounds for Cougar lovers. You can now have the Cougar's strange backlight, its weird little quarter windows, and turbo firepower in its belly. Lincoln-Mercury has just released an identical-under-the-skin version of the Turbo Coupe, wearing its sixteen-year-old XR-7 nameplate.

       By identical we mean that once you get past the outer shell, you'll find that FoMoCo makes no attempt to hide the fact that Mercurys are really Fords and vice-versa; no clever GM-style divisional redecorating jobs here. Looking at the Cougar from inside out, it would be difficult to make a positive identification without the XR-7 badge on the glove box. The long, softly padded slab of dash is the same as the Bird's. The graph-pattern instrument panel is identically devoid of proper instrumentation save a tachometer. And the curvy center console with the power seat and window controls is at once familiar, as is the lovely multiadjustable seat.

       The two cars are technical twins as well. The complete pile of Turbo Coupe chassis hardware is included in the XR-7's $13,090 base price. The front suspension includes modified MacPherson struts and an anti-sway bar, while the rear is a rigid axle located by four trailing links. As in the Bird, two gas-pressurized shocks are mounted longitudinally in addition to two conventional shocks to help damp the windup of this poorly located live axle. Coils are used as the spring element, and there's a rear anti-sway bar to balance out roll stiffness.

       When we sought out a piece of challenging road in the XR-7, we discovered a serious deterioration in ride quality from that of the Turbo Coupe we last drove, a situation most likely caused by the XR-7's optional Michelin TRX 220/55R390 tires. The Michelins exploit the weakness of the XR-7's live axle suspension and deliver a much harsher ride than the Goodyear Eagle GT P205/70HR14 tires (standard on the Turbo Coupe and XR-7). Crash and bang over freeway expansion strips were quite a bit more severe than in the Goodyear-shod Bird. Over rough pavement, the XR-7 totally lost its composure, successive one-wheel bumps caused the body to cycle nervously on its four corners. This uncomfortable loose feeling got worse as speed increased, a condition that wasn't helped by Ford's characteristically numb steering. In snow, the tires were diabolic: each time the turbo kicked in, the XR-7's rear end snapped out of line. We're convinced that the money for the extra-cost Michelins would be better spent on your stamp collection.

       The XR-7's drivetrain is much as we remember it in the Turbo Coupe: a strong engine with almost instant on-demand boost and a performance-geared five-speed transmission operated through a precise shift linkage. We intended to try an automatic behind the turbo engine in this Cougar, but Ford hadn't released any from the production plant as of test time. Our chief complaint is the awful engine-room ruckus that starts roaring at about 3500 RPM and gains in garrulous intensity as the engine revs near the redline. If Ford ever finds someone able to purge this powertrain of its harshness, that person will promptly win our votes for Vice President In Charge Of Good Deeds.

       So, is the Cougar an ugly car? Lincoln-Mercury doesn't much care what we think of the Cougar's styling. Taking a hatchet to the Bird's slippery roofline was the right move for L-M. The new sheetmetal jolted dead-in-the-water Cougar sales of 15.609 in 1982 upward by a whopping 458 percent. Monthly demand, though down somewhat from a high of 10,563 in September 1983, remains strong.

       The XR-7 isn't a big deal for L-M; it plans to sell a mere four to five percent of an estimated 100,000 Cougars this year in turbo trim, about one-quarter the number of Turbo Coupes that Ford plans to peddle. L-M wants the XR-7 package to knock a couple of years off the average age of the cougar buyer, now running from 38 to 40 years. The marketeers hope it will appeal to the mid-$30,000 income bracket (up for this car) and draw sales from Buick's Regal T-Type, the Olds Cutlass Supreme, and the Pontiac Grand Prix. It would have a better shot at success, we feel, if the chassis were further buttoned down, the steering given more feel, the engine smoothed out, and the instrumentation expanded.

       As for the Cougar's styling, we'll give it to you straight from the collective staff: ugly, 8; handsome, 1; somewhere in between, 6.