[Patrick L.]

Without having read the above stories,,,

Not many, very few twin engine piston airplanes have counterrotating engines. The difficult part of flying a twin is when an engine fails due to the asymmetric thrust [ even when the failed engine is caged/feathered]. When instructing I used to place a yaw string on the windscreen to help demonstrate this. Yaw is a killer in an engine failure. You are taught the old saying, dead foot dead engine which is part indentify, verify. Yaw rolls the plane over and failure to handle it properly is the reason fatalities are so high when this occurs.

The Piper Twin Comanche PA-30 was built with two conventional rotating engines. I think its a great small twin, but, was kinda plagued with some failed Vmc demonstrations. It didn't want to climb on one engine, unlike its bigger brother the Aztec.
Like few other aircraft, Piper finally changed its designation to PA-39 installing counterrotating higher horsepower engines. That was a good change.