Though several vehicles have included the word, “boxer,” in their names, not all of them have had the dog breed in mind. The Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer‘s name was inspired by the car’s unusual flat-twelve horizontally-opposed ‘boxer’ engine, not the Boxer breed. Produced by Ferrari in Italy between 1973 and 1984, it was the first mid-engined road-car to bear the Ferrari name and sport the Cavallino Rampante (prancing horse) logo.

Speaking of boxer engines: Unlike an inline engine that typically has three, four, or six cylinders lined up in a vertical row, the boxer engine is a horizontally opposed engine. It usually arranges four or six cylinders horizontally in relation to the crankshaft. Because the pistons within these cylinders “jab” outward from the crankshaft and resemble the movement of a boxer’s fists in the horizontal plane, they are known as boxer engines. Porsche, Subaru and Toyota are the only manufacturers we know of that offer “boxers.” Our favorite car, the Porsche 911, always comes with boxer engines. Just saying.

The GTK-Boxer, a German-Dutch vehicle manufactured by Artec, may have been named for the breed, but it was more apt to have been so named because it is a multirole armored fighting transport. Fighting <–> Boxing. Get it?

The Peugeot Boxer, a promising little mid-engined Boxer barchetta kit car developed in the early 90s, showed real promise, but little came of it.  Gaining more traction is Peugot’s e-Boxer van introduced in 2021. This actually is named for the breed for obvious reasons (check out the snub-nosed front end). It is Peugot’s largest full electric Light Commercial Vehicle, and as a third-party conversion, it was created to fill a gap. You’ll find lots of reviews of the vehicle on-line, but we want to leave you with a video of Peugeot’s Boxer Dog Van Conversion Walkaround. While most fanciers load up the wagon or mini-van, a few lucky exhibitor and/or handlers toodle off to the dog show in one of these:

Would you want one?

Image: “Pickles the Boxer dog driving his RX3” by Rob Pacey, owner of DrawMyRide, is available for purchase here, and Boxer owners, Pacey has artwork of Boxers driving different vehicles.