As I understand it, the term Boxer came from the pistons' appearing to be 'boxing' each other...what do you think Kuan?

Of these arrangements, a straight six is the smoothest. However, it's the least easy to package (which is why they're often canted over to one side) and potentially has the highest center of gravity.

A flat six works better than the other configurations for Porsche for a couple of reasons:
1.) Low Center of Gravity
2.) Air cooled

A V-6 is a great configuration for packaging, but is only smooth when including some sort of active balancer to get rid of huge 2nd order vibrations (whatever the heck they are-engineers please chime in here); virtually all modern V-6s incorporate a crank-driven balance shaft of some sort

As to Kuan's contention that a flat 6 would wear less than the others, I'd not heard that nor do I really understand why that would be the case. Anyone care to elaborate?

__________________
"If God had meant for us to walk, why did he give us feet that fit car pedals?" Sir Sterling Moss

Michael
2014 E63S Estate
2006 SLK55
1995 E500
1986 Porsche 944 turbo