Mario Kart is one of the few truly great racing games as it manages to unite serious race fans and casual gamers with its combination of wild tracks, fun characters and ridiculous weapons. Now, one budding creative has asked the question: what would happen if you really could fire explosive shells at your enemies, just like in Mario Kart?
This question was posed by YouTube channel No Bitrate, which is helmed by Alex Corea. In one of the channel’s latest uploads, the team endeavors to strap full size Koopa Shells to the roof of a car and fire them at pesky road users. The results, obviously, make for an excellent way to spend your lunch break.
To build the real-world shells, Corea and his team started by 3D printing large models. To show the challenges they face in firing the shells in the straight lines you see in the game, Corea then straps one to the roof of his car to demonstrate that the shell defaults to pointing straight up in the wind. Without any stabilizers in place, this means the shells would just spiral uncontrollably whenever fired.
To try and prove themselves right, the team fitted a rocket engine inside a shell and fired it. As expected, the shell spins wildly, missing a Mario mannequin lined up in front of it and crashing into the bushes. So, to give Corea a slim chance of aiming successfully, the team works on designing stabilizers for the shells.
The design the team settles on looks a lot like the kind of fins you find on the back of missiles mounted to fighter jets, adding a long tube to the shell with four fins at the rear. Inside the tube is the rocket engine and its igniter, while the four fins are there to help the shell fly straight and true.
With the new shell 2.0 design finalized, there was one other factor that the team hadn’t considered before embarking on the project: the legality of firing rockets from a car. It turns out that here in the U.S. you can’t legally fire a rocket from an unmanned or remote control device. But, because this is America, there’s actually nothing wrong with firing missiles from a car you’re physically inside and driving.
So, the No Bitrate team designs a shield that could be mounted to the windshield of the car so its occupants aren’t covered in rocket exhaust and smashed glass. With that minor inconvenience solved, it was out to the firing range to test the shells out.
The design works great, and despite a few targeting issues with initial attempts, the shells fly straight and true into their victims, which in this case isn’t a rival racer and is instead a parked up minivan blocking the way.
The full video of the build is linked above for you to enjoy and it’s a lot of fun. If you like this kind of over-the-top YouTube destruction derby, then why not also check out this jet-powered merry-go-round and a stress test of the Cybertruck.