All other things considered equal, which front suspension gives the best and safest high speed street/racing only (not off road) performance with cornering, straight line stablity, braking etc. being taken into account. The king and link pin, ball joint or MacPherson strut front suspension?

Also with disc brakes all round, suitable tyres and an IRS rear end.

Would rack and pinion steering improve matters?

Whoa........ I'll go first.

SET UP PROPPERLY McPherson strut will win hands down. Yes, you need to get the bushings etc replaced.
Just have a look at Snotty the green super on http://www.beetleracing.com 

Rack and pinion is better for daily driving but "may" be too light for some in a racing set up

Depends on who you ask

The Ball joint is superior to the King and Ling as you can have adjustable camber and different wear rates etc etc

As for Struts vs Torsion bar you will get thousands of different answers and opionions

As for racing it would depend on how you set up the front ends and if you have adjustability in each of them to suit the track our racing on.

Hi

One of best things about struts is the adjustability. You can easily vary your spring rate, ride height, corner weight, caster etc. The rack & pinion strut bug is the ultimate set-up in my opinion. Its superiority can be seen by just turning the wheel off centre while its parked, a steering box car will get play off centre, a rack car has almost or very little play when doing this, the lack of play equates to better control as kickback from the road wheels goes directly to the steering wheel where as car with a steering absorbs the play which will minutly turn the steering during a turn.

The only thing against a strut car is the weight penalty.

Steve

Hi Steve,
so a super weighs more than a torsion bar beetle??

I would have thought the struts would be lighter than the torsion bar ball joint front end..

Lee

Thank you gentlemen. I was recently speaking with the owner of a strut front, rack and pinion steering Beetle. He said that it is greatly superior to all the others. As he is a bit of a blatherskite I took what he said with a grain of salt and that's why I'm asking you here. It seems that what he said is being confirmed. Thanks again.

I'm dreaming of my next, or next after next, project and I need to get a few thing right before I buy the donor vehicle. I'm pleased to know that the strut front is multi- adjustable to suit conditions. That's important to fit with the new ideas that I'm having.

Yep it weights more: about one bag of concrete