Does pressing L give you items faster?

Solution 1:

Yes, you can get your items faster by pressing the item button to interrupt the roulette. I don't know the exact numbers, but it's pretty simple: Normally you get an item after a certain period of time, and you can press the button to receive it earlier, though there is a minimum roulette time (it can't be instant).

In MK8 specifically, this is the only pure factor in roulette time: it's fixed, but you can interrupt it earlier after a point. However, when playing online, the roulette doesn't stop until it successfully hears from all other players that they know what your item is. As a result it will roll slower in games with more laggy opponents.