Today I was setting up a friend's car (using his m11X) which need the throttle to be REVERSED in order to get the right input, initially it did the same thing as you told (neutral position= running) but after recalibrating the ESC, it went away and it worked as per normal input. this was on an EzRun ESC though.

If it's not working with you I suggest you to switch the throttle back to normal. let the motor rotation be as it is and change the diff position. ie: swap the diff from left of crown gear to right of it ,vice versa, and do this to the front and rear diff. IF your TB diff casing can allow this though. So by doing this you'll get a normal input reaction.