Yes, there were vehicles with boxer engines, but I couldn't or didn't want to afford them at the time they appeared, with one exception, but more on that later.

No, the VW Beetle was certainly not one of them. At all, I loved it more to fix it than to drive it, which is perhaps a relatively rare occurrence. It was great for repairs. The engine was out in a very short time, and was already once tested compulsorily in the coastal sand.

It was considered solid, but it was only because it skillfully protected itself from tuning. This was the purpose of this long, thin intake line, which successfully withstood any increase in performance. Its restriction to regular gasoline also protected it for life.

If you removed them and installed at least two carburetors, possibly with an increased compression, then you could get a nasty surprise. The engine just got too hot. At Porsche, an increase and cooling of the oil supply has already been introduced with just a little bit of tuning.

And then the oil cooler always stood in the way of supplying the third cylinder with cooling air. Somehow the consumption, which was already not low, increased disproportionately. The Porsche sports cars tend to forgive that, either because of the lower air resistance or the owners didn't care.

No, there were two vehicles that stole my heart, but unfortunately never found their way into my garage, and they were the Alfasud and the Citroen GS. The former was a new construction, like the entire car, presumably because government subsidies were intended to help southern Italy get back on its feet industrially.

It had liquid cooling, plenty of room for increasing displacement and thus power, a pleasant sound and silence when needed. I would almost have bought it new if it hadn't been for news about the premature aging of the bodywork. The neighbor had such a car in which one day the entire antenna including the electric drive fell into the wheel arch due to rust.

The Citroën still remained. I only went with and was impressed by the wonderfully quiet engine. One could not believe that the engine is air-cooled. And then the traditionally low consumption of the French. The only downside was the luggage compartment, which was large but not expandable.

But there would have been a solution for that too, namely the GS as a station wagon. It didn't look quite as original anymore, but it had every imaginable practical use, including the really cozy and homely seats. Unfortunately, rust was the archenemy here too, which I never learned to accept.

And yet I have become weak in the form of an extremely inexpensive offer, namely a pilot series WW Porsche 914 that someone had driven hard against a truck's twin tires. To describe the damage and the repair would lead too far here.

We covered about 55,000 km by car, the longest distance to Rabat, the capital of Morocco. In the entire time it broke down twice, could be woken up again at short notice and once the next morning with on-board equipment, so in principle it never really let us down.

Even its consumption was at an average of 10 liters/100km with a rather quiet drive for the budget of a student at the time on the border of the tolerable. But the thought of having to pay for real Porsche parts in the event of a possible damage made me sell the car. Of course everything was fine with the gearbox, it was just the fear that the cash register could be blown up.

In addition, the next accident car and the possible experiences beckoned. But the boxer engine, so close behind the driver's seat, doesn't seem to have lost its fascination for me to this day. Now it should really start, e.g. with the legendary 911 and its engine, but there will perhaps be another series of articles on that.