Pipe Frame

"Racing Kart" redirects here. For the overall karts, see Kart.

Pipe Frame
Render from Mario Kart World
Type	Kart
Appears in	Super Mario Kart Mario Kart 64 Mario Kart: Super Circuit Mario Kart 7 Mario Kart 8 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Mario Kart Tour Mario Kart World
Variants Gold Pipe Frame 8-Bit Pipe Frame Pipe Buggy

“Yoshi's go-kart really goes!”

—Super Mario Kart US commercial

The Pipe Frame (also formerly known simply as the Go-Kart until Mario Kart 7, also called Racing Kart in Super Smash Bros. Melee) is the original form of the kart that appears in the first three installments of the Mario Kart series and is the predecessor to the Standard Kart. Throughout the games it appears in, the kart has different colors depending on the driver. In its original appearances, the Pipe Frame acts as the one and only vehicle available. The abilities of the kart depend on the driver so the kart itself has no strong or weak points.

After a 10-year absence, the Pipe Frame returns in Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart 8, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as an unlockable kart body. It generally gives a boost in acceleration and handling while decreasing weight and traction. The Pipe Frame also appears in Mario Kart Tour as the starting kart and returns once again in Mario Kart World.

The Pipe Frame kart has a passing resemblance to an early '80s World Championship kart raced by Ayrton Senna, an icon in Japan due to his connections with Honda, and to modern micro karts known for their combination of small frames and powerful engines.

History

Mario Kart series

Super Mario Kart

The kart makes its first appearance in Super Mario Kart, designed as simple, small go-karts with different colors (red for Mario, blue for Luigi, pink for Peach, red-orange for Yoshi, green for Bowser, olive for Donkey Kong Jr., yellow for Koopa Troopa, and azure for Toad) and various performance traits for each character, along with an ability to boost by drifting.

Each character's kart has different engines; some use four-stroke and few others use two-stroke.

Mario Kart 64

The go-kart is redesigned in Mario Kart 64, featuring realistic-looking wheels, new colors for every character (red for Mario, green for Luigi, rose for Peach, blue for Toad, light-green for Yoshi, yellow for Donkey Kong, violet for Wario, and red-orange for Bowser) and a cubical engine with dual exhaust pipes. It also has a different handling stat compared to its predecessor.

This time, all karts use two-stroke engines, with the exception of Toad's kart which uses a softer sounding four-stroke engine instead.

Toad and Donkey Kong are the only characters to have their own unique engine sound from any other character.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit

The kart's design and colors for Mario Kart: Super Circuit remain unchanged from Mario Kart 64 aside from its handling, which is reverted to that of Super Mario Kart to fit the game's two-dimensional environment.

Unlike in Mario Kart 64, all the karts now use four-stroke engines.

Mario Kart 7

After being absent in subsequent games after Mario Kart: Super Circuit, the Pipe Frame returns in Mario Kart 7 as an unlockable kart body, using its same design from Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit. The character's emblem is shown in the rear, underneath the engine. It is one of the three kart parts to have a different color for each character. The eight characters from Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit, alongside Daisy, retain the same color schemes as their Standard Karts in Mario Kart DS. Like in Super Circuit, it has a four-stroke engine with powerful-sounding exhausts. Its engine is similar to the Blue Seven and the Sprinter from Mario Kart Wii, which in turn the lower-pitched version of various karts from Mario Kart DS.

In terms of stats, the Pipe Frame slightly boosts acceleration, off-road, and drift, but slightly hinders top speed and weight, which makes it the polar opposite of the Gold Standard in a way. In terms of its hidden stats, however, it gives a strong boost in sea and air speeds, and a good boost in mini-turbo, while not hindering any other stat.

White Miis are the only color of Mii to receive a unique paint job, as no other character in the game uses a white Pipe Frame.

Color schemes

Color	Characters		Color	Characters
Red			Green
Pink			Lime green
Orange			Yellow
Blue			Neon yellow
Yellow-orange			Purple
Turquoise			Blue-gray
Black			Magenta
Brown			Cyan
White

Mario Kart 8 / Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

LINE sticker of Luigi in his Pipe Frame

The Pipe Frame reappears in Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe again as an unlockable kart body. This time, it now resembles the kart's original design from Super Mario Kart, featuring only one exhaust pipe instead of two as seen in Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart: Super Circuit and Mario Kart 7. Additionally, the character emblem is now located in the front. Unlike its predecessor, it is now has a two-stroke engine and its sound is shared with the Standard Kart, Teddy Buggy, Wild Wiggler, and the Sneeker, only having a softer exhaust noise. The engine sounds like a straight-four turbo rally from a Citroën C4 WRC.

Unlike past installments, the colors of the Pipe Frame are now shared with multiple characters, featuring 23 unique colors used among the 36 (41 in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe) characters (and of those, twelve of the colors are exclusive to one character, counting alternate colors for Yoshi and Shy Guy, but excluding Miis aside from the brown color). The eight characters from Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit once again retain the same color as they were in the original games, while Koopa Troopa now retains the yellow color from his Super Mario Kart artwork, while Daisy and Waluigi retain their respective colors from Mario Kart DS. All the Koopalings (except Morton) have unique colored steering wheels for their karts, as opposed to the standard black. Also, all the Koopalings have unique colored engines, as opposed to the standard goldenrod, and their wheel hinges are uniquely colored, instead of the usual gray. The Inkling Girl's orange variation uses the yellow Pipe Frame, though the icon on the kart selection screen shows the orange Pipe Frame instead.

Like the Standard Kart, Standard Bike, and Standard ATV, the Pipe Frame body is occasionally used by all the CPU-controlled characters. Most CPU racers will always pair the Pipe Frame with the Standard tires, but Donkey Kong and Koopa Troopa occasionally also use the Monster tires instead. In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, only a very few now use this body. CPU Toad is occasionally seen using this body equipped with the Slim tires; Toad, as well as Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Diddy Kong, and Shy Guy, also equip it with the Parafoil. The 150cc staff ghosts for Donut Plains 3 and Cheese Land use Lakitu and Orange Yoshi on the Pipe Frame with the Monster tires. The 200cc staff ghost for Bone-Dry Dunes in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe uses Dry Bones on the Pipe Frame with the Wood tires.

In Mario Kart 8, the Pipe Frame gives a good boost in handling and a slight one in acceleration, but it hinders traction and slightly hinders weight. In terms of its hidden stats, it offers a good boost in sea and air handling, and slight boosts in sea and air speeds, anti-gravity handling and mini-turbo, while only slightly hindering anti-gravity speed. It shares its stats with the Wild Wiggler, Standard Bike, Flame Rider, Varmint, W 25 Silver Arrow, and City Tripper. Overall, the Pipe Frame has the second highest stat total of any kart body, and the third highest among all vehicles.

In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Pipe Frame's stats have been altered so that it now hinders speed, but gives a higher boost in acceleration and now slightly boosts traction. In terms of its hidden stats, it no longer increases water speed and now hinders air speed and air handling, while hindering anti-gravity speed further, with no compensation. It now only shares its stats with the Varmint and City Tripper.

An early version of the Pipe Frame's body featured the same design it had from Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit, with the only exception being that the character's emblem was located at the front, like in the body's final version.

The Mario Kart 8 version of the Pipe Frame was used in a LINE set of stickers based on the game, although lacked the emblem on the front and equipped with the tires from Super Mario Kart. It was also used in a Google Maps Easter egg for Mar10 Day 2018, which ran for a week ending March 17, 2018. The Pipe Frame's appearance in Google Maps later reappears in Mario Kart Tour.

Color schemes

Color	Characters		Color	Characters
Red			Green
Pink			Orange
Sky blue			Hot pink
Lime green			Black