Sadly, you won’t get one of these babies as a pre-order bonus, but Nintendo has commissioned West Coast Customs (Pimp My Mario Kart) to create two replicas of Mario and Luigi’s vehicles from Mario Kart 7, in celebration of its upcoming release.

The life-size karts were unveiled at the LA Auto Show – alongside a promotional booth for the 3DS racer – undoubtedly confusing many who were there to see automobiles which didn’t sport hang gliders and bumble bee paint jobs.

Mario’s distinctive streamlined kart took centre stage, complete with its flying and underwater capacities clearly on show (although sadly not functional). Luigi’s Bumble V kart is perhaps the more visually impressive of the two, with an appealing yellow and black colour scheme.

It’s kind of a shame that most of us won’t get a chance to drive these around with a huge smile on our faces, but it’s the first step towards a real-life Mario Kart tournament. Soon all we’ll need is a shell launcher, some banana skins and a go-kart track with a reputation for having a complete disregard for human safety.



Mario Kart 7 is released on the 2nd of December while the Karts themselves will feature in an episode of ‘Inside West Coast Customs’ in 2012.

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