The obsession with brass....
 

Just to please my curiosity (and cos im bored at work...)

Back in the day, when we all started swapping out to LiPo from NiMh.....was there much testing done without addition weight to see if the lighter cars could yeild a better laptime overall?

Or was the general concensus just to say "f#ck it..lets get the weight back up cos its easier!"??

Just curious to hear whether the addition of weight to a LiPo car is down to lazyness or because a heavier car is without doubt better than a lighter car?

Someone (I think it was Doughty?) did suggest it was to do with the proportions of unsprung weight to sprung weight that affected the handling and the only way to get that balance right was to add weight back to the chassis.

I do remember back when the carbon tubs came out for the RC10, the cars were a lot lighter, but didn't handle as well on rough tracks as the original alloy tubs, so it does makes sense to me.
(although I really don't understand the technicalities!)

Back in the day, when we all started swapping out to LiPo from NiMh.....was there much testing done without addition weight to see if the lighter cars could yeild a better laptime overall?

YES

Or was the general concensus just to say "f#ck it..lets get the weight back up cos its easier!"??

NO

Just curious to hear whether the addition of weight to a LiPo car is down to lazyness or because a heavier car is without doubt better than a lighter car?

Almost always YES

Much of the weight we add nowadays (especially in 2wd at least) is way past and beyond the differance between the older NIMH's and newer LIPO's, it is not neccasarily just to get the weight back to the same but more to tame the combined power we now have with LIPO's and BRUSHLESS.

Brass is also quite easy to work with and because of the it's weight properties small amounts can be used to make parts in comparison to other materials such as steel or aluminium.

I think thats the main reason.

With more power than the chassis can handle any advantage gained over bumps is worth it. If your car is too heavy for your current motor you can just drop down another wind or two.

There is little difference in weight between Brass and stainless steel. 10g of brass in Stainless would weigh 9.3g, So 7% less weight for the same area, But you are correct in as far as brass is a lot easier to work.