Glad to see that its has started some conversation
bayanofmansorofisky - Hahaha you have summed it up well, its not the offset that is the whole issue but the combination of factors that you mentioned. The actual figure that you must watch is "scrub". Positive scrub makes the wheel rip violently in ones hands when you are accelerating and turning and there is a rapid jump between traction and loss of traction (FWD and AWD).
Evolution_R - Just keep in mind that offset and scrub are not the same thing. Offset is the space between the centerline of the wheel and the centerline of the balljoint/ pivot point of the hub. Offset has an impat on scrub but things like upper and lower control arm length and location of the thrust bearing (top shock mount) also affect this.
As I was told when I made my first mod, look at the standard LFS cars for guidance on how to build your suspension, once you have a grip on that you can then build your own and tweak it as you desire.
My Stupidvan mod is based on the LFS F08 suspension but I have then worked on the lower and upper control arms to get the track width I want and to get the handling the way I want. The longer your lower and upper control arms are the more progressive the suspension will be and will allow for greater travel and the inverse for shorter arms which will be more snappy with far less travel.
