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In our next life, we want to come back as a Lexus stylist.

The design team at Toyota’s luxury division talked the bosses into sending them to the French Riviera for several weeks to study the “elegance, beauty, class and richness” of the surroundings to come up with the motivation to shape the sheet metal of the new 2002 Lexus SC430 hardtop convertible.

But the trip was well worth the time and money because, the designers said, they got “visual inspiration” from the luxury yachts in the harbor and incorporated “some of the character lines” from those yachts into the body of the SC430.

Don’t know exactly which yacht so inspired the design crew. The finished product gives off hints that boats carrying the BMW, Audi, Jaguar and Porsche logos must have been in port the day the stylists spent time along the water ogling the sea-going craft.

Hmm. Does the General Motors design staff spend their time along the Dead Sea?

But we digress.

The rear-wheel-drive SC430, which replaces the SC400/300 coupes offered since 1991 but never in convertible form, attracted lots of admiring attention in the parking lot–and not all onlookers were boaters.

But the real attraction is not what the SC430 looks like with the top up; it’s the aura it gives off when you push the button in the instrument panel and sit back as the aluminum top motors down into what is called a trunk in most cars, a trinket in the SC430 after that top is stored, with room left for only the first-aid and tool kits that come as standard equipment.

A thick pull-out plastic shade in the trunk must first be pulled and fastened over the floor before the top will lower. Why? Because the top is aluminum and if the first-aid or tool kits are out of place on the floor, you wouldn’t want the aluminum to strike them and scratch or crease. Nice touch.

Other than first-aid and tool kits and a spare tire, the trunk has little room for anything else. You can pop for a $400 set of run-flat radials to eliminate the spare and provide room for a set of golf clubs, though those clubs better be the kind you use to play miniature golf.

Those run-flats, by the way, can be driven for up to 100 miles at speeds up to 55 m.p.h. without air.

What’s a tad unusual about the SC430 is that though the greenhouse (glass area above the doors and below the roof) is egg shaped and very low like an Audi TT coupe, there is surprisingly good front, side and rear visibility from inside.

And that cabin is quiet with top up or down, a Lexus trademark. The 4.3-liter, 300-horsepower, 32-valve, double-overhead cam V-8 teamed with 5-speed automatic is whisper smooth while boasting a mighty quick zero- to 60-m.p.h. time of 5.9 seconds. We have to suspect the time would be even quicker if it weren’t for a hint of hesitation between pressing kicking the pedal and full response.

The SC430 shares the same 4.3-liter V-8 offered in t he midsize GS430 performance sedan as well as in the full-size, top-of-the-line LS430 sedan.

But zero- to 60-m.p.h. bursts only make for idle boasts at the cocktail hour unless you have the total package to go along with it.

The SC430 comes with 18-inch performance radials designed for optimum handling along with four-wheel independent double wishbone suspension with coil springs, gas-filled shocks and stabilizer bars tuned to keep you planted flat on twisty roads at a variety of speeds.

At the same time, the suspension delivers smooth ride with almost no detectable road harshness. Some will argue that the SC430 performs much the same as a LS430 sedan in terms of quiet and predictable behavior and lull-you-to-sleep road manners.

By the way, those 18-inch radials are summer treads. Convert to winter tires or garage the SC430 in the Snow Belt each winter.

As for novel touches, there’s a power coin holder in the center console. Press a lever a it pops open. We can’t explain why you would need a power top on a coin holder. But in a car with a base price of $58,455, you probably would expect more than free first-aid and tool kits in the trunk, don’t you think?

Other goodies include a tire monitoring system that sets off a buzzer when a drop in pressure is detected; a nine-speaker Mark Levinson audio system that adjusts sound level automatically if the top is up or down; a climate-control system that adjusts air flow and temperature automatically, depending on whether the top is up or down; and key cylinder locks on the center console and glove box to protect valuables when the top is down.

Of note, the SC430 comes with four-wheel anti-lock brakes with electronic brake force distribution that varies brake pressure according to the load at each wheel, as well as Vehicle Skid Control (VSC) teamed with traction control, and Brake Assist, systems designed to help the driver in emergency situations or poor conditions.

Brake Assist sensors determine whether the driver is attempting emergency braking. If so and if the driver has not stepped hard enough on the brake to engage the ABS, the system does so.

VSC helps keep you on course by detecting understeer (front-wheel slide) and oversteer (rear-wheel slide) and attempting to control either with torque intervention and/or by braking individual wheels.

The SC430 also offers dual front and side-impact air bags, daytime running lights, fog lamps and high-intensity discharge headlights.

But there are drawbacks, one of which is the rear seat, there only to keep insurance companies who put premiums on two seaters at bay. The back of the front seat touches the front of the back seat. Use the back seat for a sack of groceries, a carry-on bag or the clubs that won’t fit in the trunk.

Though the rear seat is merely symbolic, the front seats are wide, supportive and rather cozy.

Another gripe: press the symbol on the key fob and the trunk automatically pops open–or at least it is supposed to. Press, press, press and eventually you reach under the instrument panel and press the release button next to the gas filler cap release, because the fob seldom worked.

Standard equipment includes power tilt and telescoping steering wheel with power automatic tilt away to ease exit when the key is turned off; power windows with automatic up/down; power locks; power heated mirrors with defoggers; rear window defogger; headlamp washers; water repellent side door glass (water ran off the glass faster than we could pour it on during a test) for optimum visibility in the rain; and an ample supply of maple or burled walnut interior trim.

The SC430 starts at $58,455, and there are only three options, those $400 run-flat radials, a $440 spoiler (which is very small considering the price) and a $2,000 navigation system.

Only 12,000 will be shipped to the U.S. from Japan in 2001, and after that Lexus said it expects to send about 10,000 here annually. You can expect high demand with the limited availability, two factors guaranteed to keep prices and dealer markups on the high side for some time.

By comparison, the GS430 starts at about $47,300, though a $50 price increase is coming in May, and the LS430 starts at about $54,000, with a $200 price increase in May.