any more opinions out there about how fast the game should run? [...] Do others agree that the pause when eating a ghost is too long?

I think overall game speed is fine, but the eating a ghost pause is just a smidge long. If it doesn't get changed, it won't bother me.

I see no mention about the control layout (on the remotes, the front panel doesn't leave many options), so should I take it that it is satisfactory, or is there a better layout someone can suggest?

I don't really see how it could change any. Maybe get the remote key definitions from config.ini? I might prefer to use 2, 4, 5 and 6, for instance. The only control that I think is missing is a pause button. Some traffic lights aren't long enough to get an entire game in, and I'd hate to have to try and drive while I finish my game... Maybe a knob press can pause, instead of taking you back to the hijack menu? A long knob press can quit, instead.

[...] the high score table. As mentioned this would require mounting the drive as read/write, unless you don't mind the scores being wiped each time the machine reboots.

This would be a good compromise. I wouldn't mind having a high score table for things like road-trips...

The game doesn't have the same priority as the player software, so if the player is very busy, like spinning up the disk, then the game will freeze.

It was a bit annoying the first time it happened, but I got used to it pretty quick. There's probably a way around it, but I'm in no rush to get the fix...

Some things I thought of myself but didn't know if there would be a demand for would be some of the extra bonuses from the original that are absent, such as extra lives for reaching so many points, and the fruits.

I wasn't good enough to notice if any of that stuff was missing, but now that you mention it, there's a demand for it.

Perhaps options like game speed, priority, ghost munching pause, etc, can go in config.ini (or its own rc file, and take a command line option for how to locate the rc file).

Other than that... Woohoo!

(Note to whoever maintains the car stereo mp3 player matrix -- you've got a new category to fill out: Plays video games. )