Dash Panel

Boost Pads (also called Dash Panels, Zippers, Rainbow Boosts, Rainbow Ramps or Turbo Tiles) are special zones that appear in the Mario Kart series. The appearance of these panels have changed throughout the game's history. Boost Pads are used to increase speed of the player's Kart, especially to be used to achieve maximum speed on big jumps and slopes. If the player uses a Mushroom on any of these pads, nothing will happen; however, the player will go faster if the player slipstreams on it.

''Super Mario Kart
Boost Pads appear as a yellow arrow in a few courses.

''Mario Kart 64
Boost Pads appear in almost every level and appear as yellow and red pads.

''Mario Kart Super Circuit
Boost Pads appear as yellow and red pads.

''Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Boost Pads appear as flashing rainbow pads.

''Mario Kart DS
Boost Pads continue to appear as flashing rainbow pads.

''Mario Kart Wii
Boost Pads appear again as flashing rainbow pads. All retro tracks have their first game's design, such as the zipper in DK's Jungle Parkway, which appears as it did in its original Mario Kart 64 appearance.

Mario Kart 7
In Mario Kart 7 boost pads are color-coded. They are orange if they simply increase a kart's speed, but if they are at the edge of a ramp, they are blue, have arrows similar to the Half pipes of Mario Kart Wii, and when the player drives across these blue ramps, their air glider will be activated, allowing them to soar through the sky.

Diddy Kong Racing
Objects that behave similarly to a boost pad in the Mario Kart series appear in Diddy Kong Racing, where they are known as Zippers.

Mario Party 9
Boost Pads (known in this game as Dash Zones) appear in Mario Party 9 in the minigame, Speeding Bullets. They are used to accelerate the character's speed when they are used. These Boost Pads are orange in colour. In Time Attack, a bonus challenge for Speeding Bullets is to not miss a single Boost Pad.