The Lexus SC300/400/430 - Redefining the Sport Coupe (photos)
 

The Lexus SC300/400/430 - Redefining the Sport Coupe (photos)
by Jeffrey Bausch
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Lexus should bring the SC back to bridge the gap between the RC and LC.

RC 200t/300/350/300h/F entry level coupe, competes with the 4 Series (430i, 440i, M4)
SC 350/460 mid-level coupe, competes with the 6 Series (640i, 650i, M6)
LC 500h/500/F flag-ship level coupe, if BMW brought back the 8 Series this would be it's competition (840i, 850i, M8)

Not too many people buy coupes so it's difficult to justify having lots of coupes in your line-up.

I saw and sat in a pre-production LC500h last weekend at a Lexus sponsored event. It is a real winner visually and the interior quality is top notch; was not allowed to drive it, of course, but from all of the reviews it has a lot of promise. The price, though, is a bit out of reach...

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I would love to see a mid range SCxxx slotted in between an RC and LC but it will never happen...... Instead, all we can do is restore/mod the 1st Gens until the LCs depreciate enough to come into range.... (sigh....).

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To me LC is SC, they have just rebranded it for marketing purposes. That L instead of S makes it sound like a flagship like LS and LX but SC has always been a flagship coupe in the lineup so I don't see any difference other than the name plate.

Agreed, when the SC300/400 debuted in late 1991, they were just as radical as this new LC coupe in terms of moving the styling forward. Performance wise, both the new LC and old SC were great drives with competitive performance, yes there were faster cars out at the time(and now with the LC), but nobody could equal the level of style, interior appointments, refinement, ride quality, and performance that Lexus offered. Its the same story with the new LC. Also nobody knew at the time either, but the SC300/SC400 are stupidly cheap to maintain, very durable, and extremely reliable. I still daily drive my 1992 SC300, other than tires, it has cost me less than $1000 for the past 40k miles/5 years in repairs.

The SC300 had an MSRP of just over $41k when it was introduced in 1992. That would translate to around $61k in today's dollars. An RC350 F-Sport can be fully optioned to over $58k, so that really is the replacement for the SC300. I guess the RC-F would be the replacement for the SC400.

The RC is nice, but I don't think it is nearly as ground-breaking as the original SC, but that also has to do with competition these days. There were very few coupes in the 90's that could touch the SC for looks and refinement. Now we have the Q60, A5, 4 Series, etc.