just a quick note, if you scale the mass of a 1/10th scale car to 1/1 size, then you have to take into account that it is becoming 10 times larger in all directions. hence 1.5 kg for a 1/10th car would be 1.5 tons for a 1/1 version. (1.5 kg x 10 x 10 x10) .
Also if you consider the grip you can generate. Assuming that you have a given coefficient of friction for a given tire, the friction generated is proportional to the weight, hence:
friction = mu*m*g , where m*g is just the weight of the car. Actually depending on the surface the effect might be even better than linear as the coefficient of friction changes if the tire spikes dig into the surface, helped by a little extra weight.I'm not actually sure if this is a valid arguement or not, I'll have to think about it a little more
We also are lucky enough, to have more power than we can handle ;-) This is pretty rare in motor sports and there is little to be gained by having the most powerful motor available. This is coupled to having an almost unlimited energy source (compared to our usage) in the LiPo battery. When I fist started racing finishing a race with the batteries we were using was a real issue, 1400 mAh is not a lot. Then it was important to have a light car to minimse the energy use when accelerating for a given force (motor), being light was the only way to be fast and last the distance. This is all now not an issue.
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