its ridiculous that the established anti-tuner's on the forum use "would be too complex and offer too much advantage" as a reason to complain about the possible addition to lfs. more people understand engine's than suspensions. engines have as much to do with a fast lap as a well sorted suspension.
example: drive your favorite set 2 laps around blackwood (no practice laps), than do same in a car with 0 toe settings, 30 spring rate, 15 shock rating, max sway setting, braking bias set to 80.
result: although the car is still drivable, the handling will change significantly, and you would not be able to set a record no matter how good a driver you are.
from what ive learned about suspension tuning over the years (as something that does not interest me), soft springs increase grip, firm shocks increase car control, sways increase grip in corners, and front tires do about 80% of braking on a car. i know more about suspension tuning that most racers, but my best efforts for the first couple months were half-assed and ineffective. yet racers who do know suspension tuning (or know someone who does) insist that suspension tuning does not affect the equality of the playing field, and that it is understood by everyone.
example: put your best set and the example set specified in the example above on ai cars, let them run 10 laps practice and watch their lap times as they proceed.
result: the ideal setup will start with lower lap times, and improve more per lap than the other one. after 30-50 laps, both ai racers will be at their best lap times with the set they are in, and both times will be close (showing what would be possible by top racers even in sets that are not ideal), but the ideal set will still be between 0.1-1.5 seconds faster per lap. this is because suspension tuning has a huge effect on the balance of racing.
it is much easier to play-balance cars with modified engines than it is to balance cars with modified suspensions. modified engines can be limited by peak hp, avg hp, hp per liter, hp per kg, to fit within a class/equal racing system. modified suspensions cannot have their peaks and avg's calculated to balance the field, there is always a "best set" on the field which others will have to keep up with. regardless of driver skill, suspension tuning can make or break a race effort, and cannot be balanced to a class/equality system. even if you calculate a car's slalom/skidpad/acceleration/braking times/distances, you cannot quantify exactly how much of an advantage a set will have over another one on a given racetrack until your actually racing.