Pipe Frame

The Pipe Frame is the standard kart used in Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, and Mario Kart: Super Circuit, and a customizable kart part in Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8. In the first three installments of the Mario Kart series, the Pipe Frame acts as the main standard kart. The abilities of the kart depend on the driver so the kart itself has no strong or weak points.

Mario Kart 7
The Pipe Frame appears in Mario Kart 7 as a retro kart body. In this game the kart offers a good boost in acceleration and off-road, but hinders speed and weight. The Pipe Frame is one of the three kart parts to have a different color for each character. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Toad and Wario retain the same colored kart from Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit.

Mario Kart 8
The Pipe Frame returns in Mario Kart 8 as a retro kart body, reverted to the Super Mario Kart design featuring a tubular engine with one exhaust pipe, rather than a square engine with two exhaust pipes used in Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit. It also contains a small circular piece of metal on the front, which displays the current character's emblem.

Unlike past installments, the colors of the Pipe Frame are now shared with multiple characters, featuring 23 unique colors used between the 35 characters (and of those, thirteen of the colors are exclusive to one character, counting alternative colors for Yoshi and Shy Guy but excluding Miis). Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Toad, Bowser, Donkey Kong and Wario once again retain their colored karts from Mario Kart 64, and Mario Kart: Super Circuit and Koopa Troopa retains his colored kart from Super Mario Kart. In addition, all the Koopalings excluding Morton have unique colored steering wheels for their karts as opposed to the standard black.

The Pipe Frame gives a good boost in acceleration and handling, but hinders weight and traction. Its stats are identical to the Wild Wiggler, Standard Bike, Flame Rider, Varmint and W 25 Silver Arrow.

Like the standard vehicles, the Pipe Frame body is occasionally used by all of the computer-controlled characters (excluding the Miis and alternate-colored Yoshis and Shy Guys).

Stats
Stat values are out of 6.

Mario Kart 7

 * Speed: -0.25
 * Acceleration: +0.25
 * Weight: -0.25
 * Handling: 0
 * Off-Road: +0.25

Mario Kart 8

 * Speed: 0
 * Acceleration: +0.25
 * Weight: -0.25
 * Handling: +0.5
 * Traction: -0.5

"Die Jagd nach dem Nintendo 64: Krawall im All"
In the Club Nintendo comic "Die Jagd nach dem Nintendo 64: Krawall im All", Mario and Luigi are seen driving karts in their mission to find a spaceship shaped like the Nintendo 64. They compete against Wario and Bowser and make another reference to the Mario Kart games by dropping Banana Peels and making them crash. The karts seen in this comic resemble those seen in the then-new Mario Kart 64. Unlike their video game equivalents, though, they can also be turned into jet skis by pushing a button on their steering-wheels.

Mario Kirby Meisaku Video
A Pipe Frame makes an apperance resembling the one in Super Mario Kart in the Mario segment of the Mario Kirby Meisaku Video where Mario drives it during his pursuit of the mysterious thief W. Eventually, after being attacked by some monsters, he spins out near a vegetable garden.

Super Mario-Kun
Pipe Frame karts are seen in the Mario Kart adaptions of Super Mario-Kun. The first time they appear, Mario races against other characters including Donkey Kong Jr. and Bowser.

Trivia

 * In Mario Kart 7, White is the only Mii color to receive a unique Pipe Frame color, as no other character uses a white Pipe Frame. In Mario Kart 8, this trait instead applies to the color Brown, unless the alternative Yoshi and Shy Guy colors are not downloaded; in that case White remains an exclusive to Miis.