Can someone explain to me which ships are capable of infinity boost and which are not; and why.

Thank you.

Infiniboost is a "feature" of certain ships where their turbo drain matches (or is less than) the charge rate of the fast charge or ultra charge powercells, both of which have a charge rate of 50 units per second.

As for which ships in particular, if a ship in this table has a "Turbo Energy" value of 50/s or lower, that ship is considered "infiniboost".

there's also concussion mine propulsion but that's a whole other ball game.

Just look for a ship which has less drain than 51.

50 drain will allow you to boost forever at 160+ m/s as long as you have a fast charge battery.

The EC-88 and EC-89 have a turbo drain of 46 per second. Every other ship has a turbo energy drain ranging from 50 to 60. It is very common for trade ships (and even some medium and heavy assault ships) have a turbo drain of 50. Most of these ships have a top turbo speed of 200. The best power cells will produce 50 power per second, which will keep a 50 drain turbo ship in turbo indefinably, as long as you don't use any power otherwise (to power weapons). So infini 200 is very common. There are a few ships that will do infini 210 or even infini 220, of which one of the more popular is the warthog mkII because of it's low level requirements.

most of the top deneb racers are infini 220 (Orion Hornet, Hog2)
or infini 210 (TPG Atlas X, EC-107)

some ships are so fast, that even though they are not infini, they are competitive in speed. The valk series is currently barred from the deneb run for being too fast, even though it is not infini.

The vulture mkIII is not infini, but has been entered into the deneb run, and even been known to finish first place.

Heh, you made a valiant try, Roda, but still got it wrong.

Vulture III is a very solid choice, and in fact it's a ship that is seen pretty much every race, and unless it gets shot down it places about 99% of the time.

The Atlas X, on the other hand, has only been used a couple of times; it accelerates too slowly to be good.

And the reason that the Valkyrie is not allowed is not because it's too fast, it's because it is a good racing ship that is not available to everyone. A serco shouldn't have to get Itani standing in order to be competitive in the Run (Serco being the extreme example, though UIT would also have to faction up to use it), and so Valks are banned. The Prom and Maud suck as racing ships, so banning them is pointless as no one flies them.

go Itani engineering :D

Indeed. The Prom uses Valk engines (the UIT gave them the tech), that is why it's so unnaturally fast and agile.

Remember to thank Itani tech every time a Promjock pwns you, people!

Wrong. The official fluff about the Prom says the Serco retrofitted a frigate engine.

it's because it is a good racing ship that is not available to everyone.

And the EC-107 is? And don't tell me anyone could get the 50 gov bus kills: any serco or UIT could also up their standing. If it's an RP reason, such as we shouldn't force Serco to become Itani friendly, why are you penalizing those who RP non-combat pilots and who are thus unable to get the EC-107?

The way i see it valks are banned because they hard to get and better than any other racing ship.
If they were allowed then it'd be either get Itani standing or not bother.
EC-107 is good but not better then alternatives, same for Orion Hornet.

Vulture III is a very solid choice, and in fact it's a ship that is seen pretty much every race, and unless it gets shot down it places about 99% of the time.
Hehe... Vulture places every time, because Mick is racing in it :)

Yes, I agree with Mick, we have a balance of 3 decent DR ships:

Orion Hornet -- best 220 m/s infinibooster (hog mkII's thrust is less), but it's thrust is not as good as Vulture's or EC's
EC-107 -- 210 m/s infiniboost, high thrust
Vulture MkIII -- 220 m/s with 55 drain, high thrust. Ships with >55 drain can't be used for Deneb Run racing.

They are balanced, every has it's pros and cons. If we look at Valk's perspectives for racing, it is and improved version of Vulture -- the same 55 drain, but higher top speed and higher thrust

(in this post when I say "thrust", I actually mean thrust/mass ratio)

Thrust/mass ratio has a name - acceleration :)
And again about availability of those ships, even if you don't have orion standing, 50 buskills and you don't want to use non-infiniboost ship you can still compete with hornet mk2 or hog mk2 and you won't be totally outclassed. Not so if everyone else had a valk.

And devs damn you for nerfing Vult mk3! It was sooo nice with 230 m/s top speed :(

<shameless plug>
If you want a good place to start for a discussion about racing ships, may I suggest you all to check my page on the wiki? Some time ago, I wrote there a short article about how the Orion Hornet (my fav runner) compares against other popular DR ships.
</shameless plug>

"Best" ship for racing is, IMHO, subjective. Raw performance data alone doesn't tell the whole story. Many times I had Mick (a Vult MkIII aficionado) or Blue Streak (an EC-107 lover) in front of me during the lap. Only to outrun their metal scraps in greyspace because their ships are a lot less (2/3 and 1/2, respectively) armored than mine.

So, running isn't just sitting on a blazing fast engine. It's also bringing that engine safely home...

In this light, with the much thicker armor, thinner cross section, higher manueverability (sp?) and impressive acceleration, the valk has just too many advantages over everything else (Edit: at least for racing). Isn't just a matter of higher nominal speed.

I agree, the Valk should be nerfed. It's top speed and low drain make it an incredibly unbalanced ship.

LOL @ Krag

If I recall rightlyish, the valk was banned back when it ran 240/55 (pre- universal speed reduction, last year).