This post outlines various Elite Dangerous ship builds for racing. Racing is an emergent gameplay loop in Elite Dangerous – there are no missions or similar activities requiring such a ship. However, many players create their own courses around settlements or canyons. The rules and location determine exactly what build you need so this post focuses on the fundamentals and design decisions.

Goals

The goals are:

1. Build a ship for racing. This requires maximizing thruster speed and manoeuvrability. Like an exploration ship, this requires minimizing everything else down to the thruster’s minimum mass.
2. Handle a few bumps. Racing along a course will often involve bumping into the sides or obstacles along the way. Strong shields or armour help survive a few of these.
3. Assume that the ship can travel to the racing system via a fleet carrier or a shipyard on in-system station. Once the ship is outfitted and engineered, there is no need for a long jump range.

Build

The table below lists racing builds for different ships, each designed to maximize their speed and agility:

Name	Size	Links	Max Speed AT 2 pips/Boost (m/s)	Boost Frequency (seconds)	Pitch/Roll/Yaw (degrees per second)	Comments
Sidewinder	Small	Coriolis EDSY	373/745	7.7	72/208/30	Small core internals leaves lots of mass. A racing sidewinder needs to sacrifice little.
Eagle	Smal	Coriolis EDSY	489/815	8.8	85/227/34	The most manoeuvrable ship in Elite Dangerous.
Viper Mk III	Small	Coriolis EDSY	606/932	11	62/170/28	The fastest ship in Elite Dangerous.
Imperial Eagle	Small	Coriolis EDSY	594/932	11	66/189/28	Similar to the Viper Mk III in speed with slightly better manoeuvrability.
Imperial Courier	Small	Coriolis EDSY	582/885	5.1	66/170/30	A good compromise between speed and agility with frequent boosting, strong shields and strong armour.
Alliance Chieftain	Medium	Coriolis EDSY	321/557	5 (capped)	59/152/27	The most agile medium-sized ship, just pipping the Fer-de-Lance.
Fer-de-Lance	Medium	Coriolis EDSY	405/591	5 (capped)	57/152/20	A good compromise between speed and agility.
Mamba	Medium	Coriolis EDSY	524/642	5 (capped)	48/127/17	The fastest medium-sized ship but has low manoeuvrability.
Imperial Clipper	Large	Coriolis EDSY	405/642	5 (capped)	59/135/30	Very manoeuvrable for a large ship. Size 6 thrusters give a high minimum weight.
Orca	Large	Coriolis EDSY	422/642	5 (capped)	38/92/30	The fastest large-sized ship. However, its poor agility makes it unsuited for racing.
Imperial Cutter	Large	Coriolis EDSY	304/540	5 (capped)	27/76/14	Possibly good for a demolition derby but not much else.

The Viper MK III is the fastest ship in the game at a maximum possible boost of 932 m/s. The Eagle is the most agile. They are bolded in the table above and, deservedly, get a lot of attention. The Imperial Eagle matches the Eagle’s boost speed but not the unboosted speed.

However, these Viper Mk III, Eagle and Imperial Eagle builds sacrifice just about everything else to attain those speeds. They have a minute jump range, heat problems, can boost infrequently and a modest bump will destroy them.

Getting these ships to engineers is also challenging. Using a fleet carrier to jump the ship to each engineer will be easier for those with patience. Otherwise, fitting a temporary Frame Shift Drive to jump to engineers is a good idea.

Heat is also a challenge. Grade 5 Overcharged on the Power Plant means the ship will often overheat when jumping, fuel scooping or boosting frequently. Use the lowest grade Overcharged on the Power Plant that you can get away with. Temporarily equipping more fuel tanks reduces the need to fuel scoop, too.

Instead, the Imperial Courier is a good compromise between speed and agility while sacrificing little. You can adjust the components to taste, like having a larger frame shift drive to get to engineers or racing tracks unaided or stronger shields. Heat management is also much better.

Outfitting and Engineering for Racing

1. Thrusters and minimum mass: Thrusters in Elite Dangerous roughly follow a real-world physics model. They provide a certain amount of thrust that is divided by the ship’s mass to determine speed and agility. However, unlike frame shift drives, thrusters have a minimum mass, meaning reducing the ship’s mass below that value provides no benefit. Therefore, the design goal with a racing ship is to equip and engineer the best thrusters possible, reduce the mass as much as possible then add necessities and “nice to haves” until just below the minimum mass.
2. Enhanced Performance Thrusters: Only available from engineers that provide thruster blueprints and only available in sizes 1 to 3, these thrusters provide the most thrust but have low minimum, optimal and maximum mass values.
3. Lightest core internals: Fill every other core internal slot with the lightest component possible, usually the D-rated version of the lowest equipable class. Engineer Sensors and Life Support with Lightweight and everything else with the blueprints that do not increase mass and Stripped Down experimental effect. This means using Overcharged blueprint on the Power Plant and the Fast Boot blueprint on the Frameshift Drive. Lower engineering grades than 5 are viable for this build if materials are scarce or overheating is a problem with the Overcharged Power Plant.
4. Power Distributor: The Power Distributor is the exception to minimizing core internals.. Using a larger Power Distributor reduces the time between boosts by a few seconds. Engine Focused or Charge Enhanced are both viable blueprints, although Charge Enhanced provides slightly faster recharge, meaning you can boost a tad more often. Charge Enhanced also helps with shield regeneration. Use the Super Conduits experimental effect instead of Stripped Down if you have the mass available.
5. Fuel tank: If the mass is still too high, reduce the fuel tank size. While you do not have to completely fill your fuel tank, there is no easy way to vent fuel. Therefore, a smaller fuel talk is the easiest way to minimize fuel mass. This is normally a dangerous trade-off but acceptable for this build.
6. Bump protection: You can apply the Heavy Duty blueprint and Deep Plating experimental effect to Lightweight Alloy without worrying about the mass multiplier. Lightweight Alloy has zero mass. A D-rated Shield Generator with the Enhanced, Lower Power blueprint and Stripped Down experimental effect gives reasonable protection at a negligible mass and power cost.
7. Optional internals are optional: As long as you have sufficient power and they do not add mass, you can add whatever you want. A Fuel Scoop can help keep the small fuel tank topped up. An Advanced Docking Computer and Supercruise Assist are nice to have.
8. Empty hardpoints and utility mounts: As with optional internals, nothing is required here. This build runs from fights and is well equipped to do so.

Variations

1. Lots of tweaking: Expect to experiment with and adjust these builds a lot to match your play style and different racing tracks and environments.
2. Too fast or fragile: These builds may be too quick or too brittle when hitting obstacles. Add Hull Reinforcement Package(s) to solve both problems.
3. Mines and chaff launchers: Depending on the rules of your races, limited weapons may be equipped for a “Mario Kart”-style race. Mines and Proximity Mines are hazardous for those following you. Chaff can disorient those nearby or celebrate a win. Seeker Missiles can take out those ahead of you, assuming you can get a lock
4. Wake scanning: Outside of racing, fit a 0D Wake Scanner and better sensors to make a ship for scanning wakes for encoded materials.
5. Hit and Run: Make this into a hit-and-run ship, e.g. with torpedo tubes, but you are unlikely to destroy anything other than the lightest ships.
6. Mosquito: Fit an FSD Interdictor then interdict pirates then stay out of their firing arc or boost away for a fun challenge.

Tactics

1. Racing: Shift pips between engines and shields to control velocity and minimize the damage from hitting obstacles. Deploy the cargo scoop or landing gear temporarily for easier turns. Boost laterally to avoid or mitigate an impending collision or get around that tight corner.
2. Practice: Racing is a skill. Without a course, the training simulations available under “Training” on the main menu can help.
3. The thrill of speed: Casually boosting to 800+ m/s low over a planet’s surface or around a settlement is fun. This ship may also be effective a Buckyball racing (flying over a planet with flight assist off to find the fastest possible speed).
4. Combat: If you are attacked, clearly racing ships are well equipped to escape.