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.