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, although it is slightly different, as this time around it has a more tubular engine with one exhaust pipe, similar to the ones first seen in Super Mario Kart, rather than a square engine with two exhaust pipes, as in other games including Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit and it has the emblem on the front for each character. 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. In addition, all Koopalings excluding Morton have unique colored steering wheels for their karts as opposed to black. Also, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Baby Peach, Baby Daisy and Baby Rosalina's colored pipe frame karts are identical to their adult counterparts and Koopa Troopa and Larry's colored pipe frame kart is identical to Donkey Kong's pipe frame kart.

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, the White Mii 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, the White Mii shares this trait with the Brown Mii.