Buckeye Bullet 2.5: The Student-Built Electric Streamliner That Hit 320 MPH

No vehicle in our collection is faster than the Buckeye Bullet 2.5. Built by engineering students at The Ohio State University, this sleek streamliner set a world land speed record for battery-electric vehicles and showed how fast electric power could really go.

Built by Students

The Buckeye Bullet program grew out of Ohio State's Center for Automotive Research, where students design, build, and race their own land speed cars. An earlier version, the hydrogen fuel cell-powered Buckeye Bullet 2, set international records at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats in 2009: 303.025 mph in the flying kilometer and 302.877 mph in the flying mile.

The team then partnered with Monaco-based electric car maker Venturi and replaced the fuel cells with lithium-ion batteries from A123 Systems. The result was the Venturi Buckeye Bullet 2.5.

320 MPH on the Salt Flats

In August 2010, driver Roger Schroer took the Buckeye Bullet 2.5 across the Bonneville Salt Flats and reached a peak speed of 320 mph. Its official FIA world record of 307.666 mph is the average of two runs in opposite directions, which is how international land speed records are measured.

Why It Matters

For most of the 20th century, electric cars were known for being quiet and practical, not fast. Record-setters like the Buckeye Bullet changed that image, and student programs like this one train the engineers who build today's electric vehicles.

See It at the Museum

The Buckeye Bullet 2.5 is on loan to the Route 66 Electric Vehicle Museum from the NHRA Museum. Plan a visit to see our collection of 125+ historic electric vehicles in Kingman, Arizona, and follow our progress toward the new museum at 519 E. Beale St., opening in 2027.