Tailored for two
Since the basic purpose of any car is to transport people from one place to another, it seems logical that the more seats a particular model has, the better.
The way things have turned out, though, many cars have had relatively few seats, and we’re going to focus on those which, for one reason or another, have had only two.
From many possible candidates (so apologies if your favourite happens to have missed the cut), we’ve created an alphabetical list of 36, all of which were in production before 2000.
1. Alfa Romeo Spider
The most famous of the various Alfa Spiders was a roadster based on the first-generation Giulia saloon.
It outlived the Giulia by a very long way, remaining in production (with several updates) all the way from 1966 to 1994.
Through all those years, it was only ever powered by one version or another of the famous Alfa Romeo Twin Cam engine, with capacities ranging from 1.3 to 2 litres, and never – as the soundtrack of the 1967 film The Graduate suggested – by a V8 of any kind.
Despite that inaccuracy, the movie gave the Spider an enormous amount of publicity very early in its run, and might have been partly responsible for its subsequent longevity.
2. Aston Martin Le Mans
Aston Martin performed very well at the 1932 Le Mans 24-hour race, in which a works car driven by Sammy Newsome and Henken Widengren finished fifth overall and first in the 1500cc class.
By way of celebration, the company abandoned its International model (which had been introduced only four months before the race and was built in very small numbers), and replaced it with a car understandably named Le Mans.
More than 100 examples are believed, at least by one source, to have been built, some with an extra pair of seats, and one of the customers was reigning Land Speed Record holder Sir Malcolm Campbell.
3. Austin-Healey Sprite
The Sprite was the smallest of the sports cars created during the 20-year existence of the joint venture between giant Austin and Donald Healey’s much smaller company, and the only one not referred to as a Big Healey.
The first, and perhaps most famous, version is referred to as either the Frogeye or the Bugeye, depending on the nationality of whoever is doing the referring, due to its prominent headlights.
Sprite history overlaps with that of the MG Midget, which will be discussed later, but the MG connection began in 1961, when the car was completely restyled, and there was no MG equivalent of the Frogeye.
Sprites were always powered by the BMC A-series engine, used only in 948cc form in the Frogeye but later available with capacities of up to 1275cc.
4. Bédélia
When we speak of two-seaters, we usually assume that the driver and passenger are placed next to each other, but Robert Bourbeau saw no reason why this should always be the case.
For his Bédélia cyclecars, which first appeared in 1910, Bourbeau decided that the seats should be mounted in tandem, and that the driver should occupy the one in the rear.
In the 1920s, Bédélia adopted the more conventional side-by-side arrangement, but by then the cyclecar craze had largely faded out, and the company did not last beyond the middle of the decade.
5. Benz Velo
While the Benz Patent Motorwagen is widely accepted as being the first car, its less well-known successor might actually be more significant.
It definitely wasn’t the first car, but it was the first to be put into series production, with more than 1200 examples being built from 1894 to 1901.
That figure includes a derivative called the Comfortable, which was introduced in 1896, had a much higher level of equipment and could even be specified, at extra cost, with pneumatic rather than solid-rubber tyres.
Every Velo and Comfortable was powered by a 1045cc, single-cylinder engine, but its power ballooned from 1.5 horsepower at the beginning of production to 3.5 at the end.
6. BMW 328
Although there had been sporting BMWs before, the 328 was the first model to be designed from scratch as a sports car.
Powered by a modified version of the 2-litre, straight-six engine used in the saloon, it made its debut in a race at the Nürburgring in June 1936, and went into series production as a road car the following year.
A coupé version crewed by Huschke von Hanstein and Walter Bäumer won the 1940 Mille Miglia road race and set the highest average speed in the history of the event at 103mph, though this was largely because the usual course was replaced for that year only by a much shorter and faster one.
The BMW 328’s engine was later reworked by Bristol, which used it in its own cars, and also supplied it to AC and Frazer Nash.
7. BMW 507
Arguably the most beautiful car BMW has ever produced, the 507 roadster was related to the 502 saloon, and powered by a 3.2-litre version of that car’s V8 engine.
Production began in late 1956, and a Series 2 with several minor updates went on sale a few months later.
Although it was very desirable, the 507 was also very expensive and, like other BMWs of the time, did nothing to resolve the company’s financial troubles.
The same applied to the 503, a related 2+2 coupé or cabriolet with a longer wheelbase – fewer than 700 examples of both models combined were built before BMW abandoned the idea.
8. Cadillac Model A
The Model A, as it was referred to after the introduction of the Model B, was the first car manufactured by Cadillac, a company which had been formed from the remnants of one established in 1901 by Henry Ford.
There were two versions, both powered by a 1.6-litre, single-cylinder engine, and for the purposes of this article we’re not concerned about the Tonneau, because that had four seats.
The Runabout had just two, and was correspondingly cheaper.
The Model A in general had a short life, being discontinued in 1904, but Cadillac did continue producing it briefly after the introduction of the Model B.
9. Chevrolet Corvette
Following a prototype’s enthusiastic reception at the General Motors Motorama in January 1953, the Corvette became available to the public that summer.
Sales were initially disappointing, but perked up considerably in 1955 when the original 3.9-litre, straight-six engine was joined by a 4.3-litre version of the new Chevrolet small-block V8.
This sealed the deal for the Chevrolet Corvette, which has survived for more than 70 years.
All Corvettes have had two seats, though since the 2020 model year the engine has been mounted behind them rather than in front.
10. Datsun Fairlady
Also known as the SP or SR, or referred to simply by its engine capacity, Datsun’s second sports car was the first available with only two seats.
It was introduced in 1963, and was at first powered by a 1.5-litre engine, though units fitted later measured 1.6 and 2 litres.
With these and other developments, the Fairlady of this generation remained in production until 1970, when it gave way to the car known in most export markets as the Datsun 240Z.
11. Dino 206GT
Named after Enzo Ferrari’s late son, Dino was a sub-brand specialising in cars which were, relatively speaking, inexpensive and produced in high volume.
Its first model, the 206GT of 1967, had a 2-litre V6 engine mounted transversely at the rear, distinguishing it from all previous road cars built by Ferrari.
The 2.4-litre 246GT followed two years later, and was in return replaced by the V8-engined 308, which was given Ferrari branding in late 1976.
12. Ferrari 166 Inter
Although it was related to contemporary Ferrari competition cars, the 166 Inter introduced in 1948 was intended primarily for road use.
Its front-mounted engine was the famous Colombo V12, now measuring a highest-so-far 2 litres as part of a long progression which saw its capacity increase from 1.5 litres in 1947 to 4.9 in the late 1980s.
Depending on who built the bodywork (and there were several contenders), the 166 Inter was available as either a straightforward two-seater or a 2+2, and usually as a coupé but occasionally as a convertible.
13. Fiat Topolino
Topolino, which translates as ‘little mouse’ and is also the Italian name for the cartoon character Mickey Mouse, refers in motoring terms to the first of many Fiats officially known as 500.
It can reasonably be described as Italy’s equivalent of the American Ford Model T and the British Austin Seven, though unlike those cars it was predominantly a two-seater.
The exception was the Giardiniera Belvedere, which was far more practical than the regular Topolino thanks to its estate bodywork and extra passenger accommodation.
Production lasted from 1936 to 1955 (with a major redesign in the post-war era), at which point this tiny, front-engined car was replaced by the similarly tiny, but rear-engined, Fiat 600 four-seater.
14. Ford Thunderbird
The first Thunderbird, introduced in the 1955 model year, is said to have been Ford’s response to the Chevrolet Corvette, and initially outsold its rival on a grand scale, perhaps because at that time the T-bird had a V8 engine and the Chevy didn’t.
Both were two-seaters, but Ford was concerned that sales could have been much better if the Thunderbird could carry more people, and from the second generation onwards it nearly always had four seats.
The policy was reversed when, after a five-year gap, the 10th Thunderbird was replaced in 2002 by the 11th, which was similar to the first in that it was a two-seat convertible.
This might have been a misstep, because the last model in the long line was only moderately successful, and was discontinued – without (so far) any replacement – after just four years.
15. Honda S500
Honda’s first publicly available four-wheeler could have been the S360 kei sports car, which caused a sensation on its public debut at Suzuka in 1962, but this was abandoned because Honda felt it lacked appeal in Japan and was not powerful enough for export markets.
Instead, the S360 was transformed into the non-kei S500, a slightly larger model with an astonishingly high-revving 531cc, twin-cam engine, which made its debut four months after the T360 kei truck in 1963.
Production lasted for only around a year before the still faster S600 came along, but the S500 has its place in history as the first of many exciting Honda S roadsters, and a spiritual (if not technical) ancestor of the S2000 introduced near the end of the century.
16. Jaguar E-type
More than six decades after its introduction in 1961, the E-type (or XK-E, as it’s known in North America) is still perhaps the most highly regarded of all Jaguars, and widely considered the most beautiful.
It was offered both as a roadster and a coupé, and mostly with the XK straight-six engine, though a V12 was added in 1971.
Generally speaking, the E-type was a two-seater, but in 1966 Jaguar brought in a 2+2 derivative.
To make space for the extra seats, Jaguar had to lengthen the body, forcing styling changes which not all enthusiasts found satisfactory.
17. Jaguar XK120
The XK120 was Jaguar’s first sports car after the company changed its name from SS.
It was originally intended as a showcase for the new XK engine, but caused such a stir on its public debut in 1948 that it was put into production the following year, originally with an aluminium body but with a steel one from 1950 onwards.
Production continued until 1954, when the car was replaced by the XK140, which was available both as a two-seater and, unlike the 120, as a 2+2.
Another development was the mechanically similar but very different-looking XK120C (for Competition), which quickly became known as the C-type and, among other successes, won the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1951 and 1953.
18. Lamborghini Miura
The mid-engined layout, which almost forces the use of only two seats, has for many years been effectively the default setting for any supercar.
All vehicles of this type point back to the Lamborghini Miura, which was not the first mid-engined production car when it was launched in 1966, but was certainly the first with a high level of performance.
That was due to the engine itself, a 3.9-litre V12 which had first appeared two years earlier, in 3.5-litre form, in the 350GT.
The Miura remained in production until 1973, and was replaced a year later by the Countach.
19. Lancia Stratos
In one of the most dramatic updates in the sport’s history, Lancia replaced its principal rally contender, the front-wheel-drive Fulvia Coupé, with the very different Stratos.
Rather than the Fulvia’s V4 engine, the Stratos was powered by the previously mentioned, 2.4-litre, Dino V6, which was mounted between the rear wheels.
An exciting car even in standard form, the Lancia Stratos immediately became the most successful rally car on the planet, winning the world championship three years straight from 1974 to 1976, and was still able to take victory on individual events as late as 1981, three years after production had ended.
20. Lotus Seven
The list of two-seater Lotus models is very long, but if we’re going to pick just one from it the Seven is the obvious choice.
Despite its name (originally given to a single-seater known today as the Clairmonte Special), it wasn’t the company’s seventh car, and actually went into production a year after the debut of the Eleven.
That year was 1957, and after three major updates the Seven was still being manufactured in 1973, at which point Lotus sold the rights to Caterham Cars.
Caterham has never stopped developing it, and you can still buy a new Seven today, though the current versions are very different from the first.
21. Maserati Mistral
The first Maserati to be named after a wind (one which blows from southern France into the Mediterranean Sea) was technically similar to the 2+2 Sebring, but had a two-seat body designed by Pietro Frua.
It was introduced in 1964, two years after the Sebring, and was always powered by a straight-six engine.
In 505 cases, the ‘six’ had a capacity of a little more than 4 litres, but 433 Mistrals were powered by a 3.7-litre version, and 30 of the very earliest were fitted with a 3.5.
Of the 968 Mistrals built up to 1969, 844 were coupés, while the remaining 124 were Spyders with convertible bodies designed by Giovanni Michelotti, and had the option of an aluminium hardtop.
22. Matra Djet
Despite the name we’ve used here, the Djet became a Matra project only latterly, and was at first manufactured by René Bonnet.
While the Lamborghini Miura is rightly described as the first mid-engined supercar, the Djet was the first production model of any kind with this layout.
The engine in question was the then-new Cléon-Fonte, introduced by Renault in 1962 in the 8 saloon (the first car designed specifically to be fitted with it) and added to the Caravelle/Floride sports car and the Estafette van in the same year.
This historic car was discontinued in 1967 and replaced by the Matra M530, a 2+2 with a mid-mounted Ford V4 engine.
23. Mazda Cosmo
Although it was produced only in small numbers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Mazda Cosmo is significant in two ways.
It was the first in a long series of Mazdas called Cosmo (though most of them were given other names in export markets), plus it was an early sign that the company would become more loyal than any other to the rotary engine.
It had taken several years to make the rotary acceptably reliable, but once that had been achieved the Cosmo was launched in 1967, to the astonishment of people who had never seen or heard anything like it.
Future Cosmos would have rotary engines, too (including the three-rotor model of the 1990s, which was branded as a Eunos rather than a Mazda), but only this one was a two-seater.
24. Mazda MX-5
Small two-seat roadsters with front-mounted engines and rear-wheel drive seemed to be firmly a thing of the past in the years leading up to the MX-5’s introduction in 1989 (in the USA, and formerly in Canada, it’s sold as the Miata).
It soon became clear that customers hadn’t been buying cars like this simply because manufacturers weren’t building them.
The delightful Mazda MX-5 single-handedly revived the category, and its success has continued into a fourth generation.
Total production reached one million in April 2016, a figure never even approached by any similar model in the history of motoring.
25. Mercedes-Benz 300SL
If anyone ever runs a poll to find the world’s greatest two-seater, the Mercedes-Benz 300SL is almost bound to receive a large share of the votes.
Thanks to its 212bhp, 3-litre, straight-six engine, low weight (made possible by tubular-frame construction) and almost equal front-rear weight distribution, it was both fast in a straight line and exceptionally capable through corners.
As introduced in 1954, it was a coupé fitted with gullwing doors, but in 1957 Mercedes-Benz relaunched it with a roadster body and conventional front-hinged doors.
26. MG M-type
The first MG known (though still informally at this stage) as a Midget has been described as the car on which the marque’s reputation was founded.
Based on the contemporary Morris Minor, it was MG’s smallest car yet, and had its smallest engine, an overhead-cam ‘four’ measuring just 847cc.
It made its public debut in late 1928 and was discontinued in mid 1932, but in that time 3235 examples were built.
This was similar to the number of all other MGs manufactured up to that point, and stood as a production record for an individual model until the TC came along after the Second World War.
27. MG Midget
The only MG officially titled Midget was produced in four generations for an impressively long time from 1961 to 1980.
The first three were equivalents of the second, third and fourth Austin-Healey Sprites (in other words, all the non-Frogeye/Bugeye versions), and the two models were so closely related that they are known collectively as Spridgets.
There were no more Sprites after 1971, but the Midget kept going, and in 1974 the BMC A-series engine which had been used for well over a decade was replaced by the 1.5-litre engine also found in several Triumph models, including the two-seat Spitfire.
At the same time, the metal bumpers were replaced by much larger plastic ones, a move which caused outrage at the time, but has become more widely accepted since then.
28. Morgan 4/4
There have been many more Chevrolet Corvettes and Mazda MX-5s, but the Morgan 4/4 has a longer history than either of those nameplates.
Production of the marque’s first four-wheeled car lasted from 1936 to 2018, a total of 82 years, though we should point out that it was not continuous.
Although there were many styling and engineering updates, the layout remained the same from beginning to end, and the once separately mounted headlights were never fully incorporated into the bodywork.
Some versions had room for extra occupants, but in most cases the Morgan 4/4 was strictly a two-seater.
29. NSU Spider
Although it was a very distant second to Mazda, NSU was still one of the few manufacturers to take the rotary engine seriously.
It applied this technology first to the Spider, a beautiful little Bertone-designed roadster produced from 1964 to 1967.
In contrast to the slightly later Mazda Cosmo, the Spider had a single-rotor engine which was mounted in the rear rather than the front.
The Spider was dropped in the same year that NSU launched the four-seat Ro80, whose brilliance was overshadowed by early unreliability of its twin-rotor unit.
30. Peugeot 205 T16
The fact that the T16 was the only Peugeot 205 with just two seats hardly begins to cover how different it was from the rest of the range.
All other 205s had front-mounted engines driving the front wheels, but in the T16 the engine was behind the passenger compartment, and drove all four.
Its sole purpose was to act as a homologation special, allowing Peugeot to compete with greatly modified rivals in the World Rally Championship.
This was a huge success. The model won 16 WRC rounds in three seasons, and in 1985 and 1986 secured both the drivers’ (courtesy of Timo Salonen and Juha Kankkunen respectively) and the manufacturers’ titles.
31. Peugeot VLV
Other than the name of the manufacturer and the number of seats, there was almost no connection at all between Peugeot’s fearsome 205 T16 and the very much less fearsome VLV.
The latter, whose initials stand for voiturette légère de ville (‘light town car’), was an aluminium-bodied vehicle driven by an electric motor, not because Peugeot had anticipated modern trends by more than half a century, but because petrol was extremely difficult to come by in wartime Paris.
With a top speed of 20mph, the VLV was barely any faster than Peugeots built in the 19th century, but as a charitable reviewer pointed out, ‘One can achieve the same performance as a first-class trained cyclist, and without the least tiredness’.
Beginning in 1941, Peugeot built 377 VLVs until France’s Nazi-adjacent Vichy regime told it to stop.
32. Renault 5 Turbo
Having had almost exactly the same idea as Peugeot did a few years later, Renault developed a mid-engined, homologation-special version of the 5 supermini, which made its public debut in 1980.
Like the 205 T16, the Renault 5 Turbo and subsequent Turbo 2 had a forced-induction engine mounted approximately where the rear seats would normally be.
Unfortunately, it did not have four-wheel drive, which was just starting to become an important feature of any rally car (with rare exceptions such as the Lancia 037), so despite achieving a few wins in World Rally Championship events, it was unable to mount a serious challenge for either of the titles.
Other 5s with similar names such as GT Turbo, Gordini Turbo and Alpine Turbo were not closely related to this car, and all had more than two seats.
33. Renault Sport Spider
Although it had the same engine and gearbox as hot-hatch versions of the Clio and Mégane, the Spider was otherwise a unique model in Renault’s line-up.
It was based on an aluminium chassis with glassfibre panels, and was so minimalist that it was sold without a roof and in some cases even without a windscreen.
Produced from 1996 to 1999, it was similar in concept to the first-generation Lotus Elise, which was less powerful but lighter.
34. Sunbeam Alpine
Sunbeam used the Alpine name for two different series of two-seaters in the 1950s and 1960s, and then again for a not-relevant-here coupé which formed part of the Rootes Arrow range.
The earliest Alpines were essentially convertible versions of existing saloons, while those built from 1959 to 1968 were more specifically designed as sports cars.
All Sunbeam Alpines had four-cylinder engines, but the second-generation car was the basis, at Carroll Shelby’s suggestion, of the Sunbeam Tiger, which was powered by Ford’s Windsor V8.
35. Toyota MR2
The Toyota MR2’s qualification for an appearance in this gallery is indicated by its name, a contraction of Midship (referring to the location of the engine) Runabout Two-Seater.
From 1984 to 2007 there were three generations, all with the same layout though with significantly different characters.
The original model, with a 1.6-litre engine (sometimes supercharged) was replaced in 1989 by a larger version whose engine measured either 2 litres or occasionally 2.2.
The third and final MR2 was launched in 1999, and resembled its oldest ancestor rather than its immediate predecessor, being smaller and lighter and once again powered by a 1.6-litre unit.
36. Triumph TR2
Despite its name, the TR2 was the first rather than the second in Triumph’s long-running series of TR sports cars.
Introduced in 1953, it was powered by a 2-litre Standard engine, and was said to be the cheapest British-built car capable of reaching 100mph.
The TR2 bears very little resemblance to the TR6, which was still being manufactured in the mid 1970s, but in fact there was a definite progression through the intermediate models, with occasional changes of bodywork, engine and suspension.
The TR7 and its Rover-engined sibling, the TR8, were part of the series in name only, and had no technical connection with any of the previous cars.
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