It's been mentioned to me that for running a Fugitive/rail on the street positive caster might be worth looking at. ie. pushing forward the lower beam on the front suspension to create a couple degrees of positive caster to aid with straight line stability.

Anyone got any thoughts on that or even tried it?

The general theory for 'solid axle' front ends is to run between 5 to 7 degrees of caster, but there are lots of factors that could affect it. I expected to need to change mine when I fitted 'monster' tyres on the back as this effectively reduced the caster at the front, but actually as I run a screen and only have a tiny steering wheel, I felt it sharpened up the steering nicely. If yours feels 'skittish' then leaning it back would definately help. You can get caster shims, crescent shape alloy sections that fit behind the lower axle tubes and longer bolts, from most of the VW aftermarket suppliers and they are dead easy to fit.

The standard set up on a Bug is 4.5 degs of castor. and if your front is stock hieght then this is fine. The problem arises when you lower the front, because of the way the trailing arms rotate around the beam the lowering action will reduce the castor. Anywhere between 5 - 9 is good, I reasoned that a 911 handled so copied that at 7 deg and its fine B)

and on fugitives, there is a "built in" castor. it already leans some more backwards then a beetle.

I recon we're fine with our measurements Agent O, and there are always "caster shims" to use if we want to fine adjust the caster angle. ;)

Yep I noticed on Saturday that the Fugs lower beam clamp comes out further than the top.

All good info from everyone and much appreciated.

I think as we'll be running same sized wheels front and rear we should be ok.

Cheers