I was just on the server, ping of 113, no gazelling, even when I was outside Manhatten with my Osiris mauling NPCs, though I DID have a little yellow lag ( which was slightly odd, since there were only 3people on at the time..) but then it didn't really happend again.
Overall it seems good.. just so long as it is dedicated to Freelancer, not running other servers at the same time, it would be fine. Though I'd prefer Majkp's server, just because of its location, I had a ping of 48 to that server.. which is pretty good..
Anyway: I don't really see the problem with having 1billion starter money, it's only got the temp files atm, so it's all going to be wiped when/if the player files do arrive, and nobody really wants to spend all that time trading to get a battleship...though 500mll would be enough..
EDIT: The starter money would obviously be put RIGHT down to 8 500 if the servers made permanent..:P