MIT Student Invents Real Life ‘Mario Kart’

Science and engineering have given us so many things that mankind once thought were mere fantasy: the gift of flight, fax machines, the toaster. Now, the march of progress continues to this day with this real-life creation of pop-culture transportation.

A mechanical engineering student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology built a miniature go-kart called the "Chibikart." It look crude, but it's actually a very sturdy and zippy electric-powered vehicle. It also looks and moves just like the rides in the various 'Mario Kart' racing games.

The "Chibikart's" inventor, known only as Charles, documented the three-week build of this very fun looking vehicle on his blog. It also cost a couple of thousand dollars in parts including the steel frame, go-kart motor and lawnmower seat, but any first-year engineering student should have no trouble getting their fellow weekend engineers together to successfully build it in exchange for a test drive. Instructions for banana peel launchers and turbo mushrooms aren't listed, but we're sure MIT's food science laboratory is working on them.

A lot of YouTubers and bloggers are comparing Charles' creation to the 'Mario-Kart' and while we can't deny its similarity, another more apt comparison crept its way into our brains as we watched the video of the kart's inaugural run. The 1:00 mark features a rear shot of the kart winding through the building's cold, endless hallways and we couldn't help but think it looks eerily similar to a young Danny Torrence riding around the spooky corridors of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining.'

It only makes us wish even more that we could play with it forever...and ever...and ever.