I have done a few test with 14awg and 13awg wires on a 17.5 motors using 1s in my 1/12 scale. I used a stator IR tester and the 14awg wire does show 0.2 milliohms more resistance plus on a dyno loading up the motor at 6000 rpm at 4.2 volts the 14awg wires got warm and showed less power.
After that result, I never bother trying the 16awg.

Has anyone tried the new rs pro black edition 1s?

freer pod movement > than .2 milli ohms

smaller guage wire was used when 1/12ths ran 6 cells at 7.2v+, and 4 cells 4.8V+ with BL motors before class went lipo.

doing one measurement can actually result in data resulting in partial conclusions. you would have had some near result if you tested 10-12g vs 16g.
MHOS, aka mho's laws, (siemens) are using to measure conductance and losses. using a size too large for the available power can cause losses too.

Well I have motor dynos, minipro and a turbo dyno 45. I will be running a few tests between 12awg 13awg and 14awg. All from tq. All tests will start with identical temps. I will be able to see if the motors are making more power with a thicker wire.

Interesting...years of running 13.5 in 1/12th scale and my 16awg wires never even got warm...strange that your 14awg wire is.

Back in the slot car days we ran chokes with mod motors. The chokes were simply lots of 18 or 20 ga wire. This gave a very low value resister in the circuit. What it did was limit maximum instant power, but only changed top speed by a little. So at high amp draw there was a large voltage loss and as the amps reduce the volts go up. Made the cars easier to drive.
I would expect that we see the same thing in 1/12 when using small wire. It takes away a little punch, but not really impacting straight away speed. Might even be a good thing in the faster classes as it mellows out the motor a little.

What would be considered the minimum specs (speed & torque) for a 12th scale servo? .1sec @ 60* and 4.5kg/cm? (~62 oz/in)?

I don't think you need anywhere close to that much torque, though it won't hurt. I'm currently running 0.05sec and 1.4kg*cm with no problems.

2 popular 12th scale servo specs.
Airtronics 94761:
Torque: 4.8V: 55.00 oz-in (3.96 kg-cm); 6.0V: 66.00 oz-in (4.75 kg-cm)
Speed: 4.8V: 0.15 sec/60°; 6.0V: 0.12 sec/60°

Futaba 9650:
Speed: .14 sec/60 degrees @ 4.8V - .11 Sec/60 Degrees @ 6.0V
Torque: 50.0 oz-in @ 4.8V - 62.5 oz-in @ 6.0V

That is FAST!!!

Thanks so much! The booster I made can put out 6V+ (adjustable) so if I get something on the weaker end, I can bump up the voltage a little.

and.....they still run chokes on 1/24 open class Group 7 motors. chokes are used for many reasons. reduce sensitivity on tighter lanes, chokes let you over motor, not smoke the arm, as motor slows reduce choke to bring speed up, and bypass choke button when hitting straights. none of this applies to 12th scale pan cars

reason for the use of smaller guage wire going to the rear pod is to minimize hindrance of pod movement.

Probably a stupid question but do Blue/Green tyres work on asphalt as well or are they mostly for carpet?

I want to do some tyre testing for next year and I have to order everything from OS so don't want to waste money I don't need to

I've tried blues on asphalt. They were fine, but they were not better than pinks, and they wore faster.

I've run plenty of greens on carpet, and from my experience there and thinking how the blues went, I would say they would suffer really rapid wear on asphalt.

Like so much in racing the quality of the asphalt surface (and the level of prep) will have alot to do with your results. I personally like BSR team purple fronts with dbl blue rears on a well prepped (sugar or soda track). However pink or dbl pink rears can also be very good. Greens, blues, and pinks will wear fast if the surface is more on the rough side, again the level of traction and the surface quality make or break what works so you will most likely need to do some testing to see what works.

I like lilac / Team purple fronts and orange rears for asphalt.

are the the 45 shore blend orange rears BSR sells? i have never run a rear tire anywhere that shore rating on asphalt usually been as low as TRC Platinum 25 to something like double purple spec rears max 38 at highest.

track you race on have special prep like VHT or?