Speaking of high-performance piston-engine twins, the Grumman F7F Tigercat was developed during WW2 as a high-performance fighter for use on the large Midway class aircraft carriers under construction. Carrier trials proved the F7F to be not very suitable for carrier use and thus the production aircraft went to the Marine Corps. The first Marine F7F arrived on Okinawa the day the war ended in 1945 and so the Tigercat missed combat.
The F7F did fight in Korea in a night fighter version with pilot and radar operator. Like its stablemate the Grumman F8F Bearcat, it was overtaken by jets.
I suspect that a number of young Marine pilots lost their lives in the same way that P-38 pilots lost theirs; engine failure at high power and low altitude.
The F7F was described by one of the Navy's senior test pilots of the era as the "best fighter we've ever had" and was also described as being like "two Bearcats strapped together."
The last photo is of an F7F flown by my Dad while at the Naval Air Test Center in Maryland 1947-50.