I've been thinking about the weight distribution number and after thinking about it I don't think the weight bias in percentage between front to rear is really all that critical. Total weight on the rear wheels is what counts. If you've got enough weight on the rear to get the traction you need it doesn't really matter if you've got 62% weight back there or 72%. It does the job. The weight bias however will affect the steering abilities since a higher rear bias favors oversteer and a higher forward bias favors understeer. If you've got it tuned well this really isn't going to be much of an issue though. If you've got too much front grip you can always dial some out with different inserts.
I was playing with the layout in my car tonight. I have a hunch but I haven't gotten the scales out to verify it though. I was looking at my car sitting in MM mode with a shorty battery mounted straight and all the way back. I placed the receiver on one side pod and the esc on the other both all the way back. Then I looked at the shorty battery sitting sideways across the chassis as far back as it would go. The receiver and esc would have to go in front of the battery. They too have weight. I have a suspicion that the different in weight on the wheels between each layout is so small that there is no appreciable difference. A longer wheelbase chassis will only equalize it even further. Again, I haven't weighed the car in each orientation but I'll bet it's close. The cg of the battery shifts front to back less than 1" between each orientation. The receiver and esc however move forwards 2" between each orientation. Although their total weight may be less than the relative weight difference of the battery orientation, the fact that they would now mount ahead of the cg of the car would have a far larger impact than their static weight alone would imply. I need to try each layout but I suspect it's not really worth the extra effort of cutting up a stock chassis just to get the battery sideways. These aren't large stick packs anymore. The cg shift from the battery orientation along with their lower weight just isn't as drastic as it once was.
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