Col you make a very good point, the off-road weight balance is more evident because of course a car with a heavy front will always land hard on it's front wheels so needs to be strong - making a car stronger usually adds weight & likewise a car will roll to the side on landing if all the weight is running all along one side, so the designers have to take this into account no doubt.
Even on older Tamiya buggies such as the Grasshopper / hornet etc i remember all the weight was running evenly along the centre of the car with the battery dead centre & usually slung low... on the more modern off-roaders all the drivetrain, bulkhead blocks & the points for mounting the electrics are central to spread the weight around to get the weight footprint & the centre of gravity even. You don't tend to get that layout on tourers (apart from perhaps TA-04's & HPI Sprint 2's) so to balance the weight around you need to add weights to the lightest side, which when running cells was the electric side, but since LiPo's have come along it's now the battery side.
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