Douglas was good aircraft even the McDonald Douglas military aircraft( F-15) but the wrong people got control of the company who got control of Boeing after the merge.
Boeing went from being run by Engineers to University Fraternity brothers. Animal House like management style.
W8 is unique and something secret about its design that works with cylinder cut off that means extra laps being done per fuel load at Le Mans. Just say during cylinder cut off it's still a very smooth running engine that the drivers will like.