Adios! Lexus SC430 to be euthanized in July

It was rumored in January and now it’s been confirmed by Automobile Magazine: Lexus will kill its slow-selling SC430 this July and it will reportedly return in 2014 packing a hybrid electric drivetrain and a new V8.

Aside from a handful of special edition models, the SC430 has soldiered on largely unchanged for the better part of a decade, and with less the 1,000 SCs sold last year and a final run of around 300 slated to be built in 2010, its demise will likely go unnoticed save a few octogenarians that pick up a new Pebble Beach Edition each summer.

According to Automobile, the next generation SC is slated to arrive sometime in 2014, packing a 5.0-liter V8 and a hybrid drivetrain that should be good for 400-500 horsepower. The Lexus SC600h – as it’s tentatively dubbed – would be a fitting replacement to the SuperGT racer that’s been running in the Japanese touring car series for the last several years – unless Lexus decides the LFA is a more worthy combatant.