1) I've never gotten down to the point that the cuttoff worked but its my understanding that the car just shuts down, kinda like a thermal; no alarm.

2) You'll get lots of different opinions, some say to balance every charge others say thay never have, I balance every ten or so charges. The goal is to keep the cells even so one does'nt get overcharged/discharged and this will help extend the life of the battery too.

3) Again lots of opinions but 1C is the safe charge rate; I've been told by a relible racer that he's charged as high as 3C but anything over 1C and you will reduce the life of the cells and have a greater risk of the battery exploding.

Really lipos are not that much different than minh except that you dont have to do all the maintiance fo discharge/tray/charge every run. I've charged a lipo let it sit for over a month and it was just as good as if I just charged it.