No need to worry, Bugatti: Your record is secure, even though your top trip speed was bested -- the Venturi Buckeye Bullet 2.5 has just set the land speed record for fastest battery electric vehicle. (Besides, the BB 2.5 isn't nearly as sexy as the 16.4 Super Sport -- or as easy to park, for that matter.)

This week, the Buckeye Bullet 2.5, created by engineering students at Ohio State University in partnership with French EV manufacturer Venturi, blasted through Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats with a two-way average speed of 307.7 mph. That's the average of two mile-long trips taken within 60 minutes of one another, though the Buckeye Bullet can go faster than that -- it exited one of the mile-long trips at an astonishing 320 mph. 

A quick update to this post about the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration probe into stalling Toyota Matrix and Corolla vehicles: Toyota has issued a recall for the 1.1 million vehicles affected by improperly made engine-control modules.

The affected vehicles are Matrixes and Corollas from the 2005 to 2008 model year, all of which were sold in North America. 

If the 412 hp from your 5.0-liter Mustang just isn't quite enough, Roush Performance Products has launched the ROUSHcharger tuner kit for your car, boosting output to 550 hp on pump gasoline with more than 470 lb-ft of torque. The kit (part number 421140) has a suggested retail price of $5,999 and is available now.

 

Car and Driver takes an interesting look into the auto industry, if you can even call it that, in North Korea, a part of the world not exactly known for its openness or for playing by other countries' notions of fairness.

Those qualities help explain some of the cars seen on the road in the nation's capital, Pyongyang -- and there aren't too many of them, considering that private citizens cannot officially own automobiles, though some manage to do just that thanks to government connections. First off, there are the Volvo 144s, now mostly used as taxis, 1,000 of which the North Koreans ordered from Sweden but reportedly never paid for. There are also various types of Mercedes from the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the Kaengsaeng 88, which is a North Korean-built knockoff of the Mercedes-Benz 190E. Apparently, back when North Korea still had some Russian cash coming in, then-leader Kim Il-Sung demanded the Kaengsaeng to be built in order to show the world they could compete with capitalist South Korea, which had just then started building its own automobiles. By all reports, the car is a pinnacle of bad engineering. 

Fans of the iconic Dodge Charger muscle sedan have been eagerly awaiting details on the upgrades for the 2011 model year. And today, this latest hunk of Mopar muscle is being revealed in its most buttoned-down form--the police package.

Just one fairly vague picture has been revealed, but as expected, the Charger will get Chrysler's Pentastar 3.6-liter V6 engine. Ratings haven't been released, but the engine makes 290 hp in the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee. We also get our first official glimpse of the Charger's slightly more sinister front end, which is similar to what we've seen in spy shots. Most significantly, the nose and headlights appear sharper and more pointed, though the Charger retains the basic look of the current car.

 

Americans don’t like hatchbacks. At least, that’s the generalization that most manufacturers that do business here in the U.S. tend to operate by. To their credit, the sales numbers seem to back up that claim: Sedans typically outsell their long-roof counterparts by wide margins despite their limited functionality, and that’s something that Audi seems to have picked up on with its A3. The smallest of the American Audi fleet is available only in 5-door trim and certainly hasn’t enjoyed the kind of sales success that the company had hoped for. According to Financial Times Germany, the company is taking a hard look at bringing a 4-door version of the A3 to the U.S. in an attempt to win over more buyers.

The move could give the A3 an edge in this segment. Its main competitor is the BMW 1-Series, which is available only as a coupe. Adding a 4-door to the Audi lineup would probably broaden the car’s appeal significantly, but from where we’re standing, the A3 has a larger hurdle to overcome -- namely, its sibling the Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen. 

Good news for Buick fans who like to shift their own gears: The upcoming GS version of the Buick Regal, set to hit dealerships next year, will offer a manual transmission. Of course, it makes sense, given that the Regal GS aims to attract more performance-oriented drivers -- which is also why the manual transmission will be mated to a 2-liter turbocharged direct-injection Ecotec engine capable of 255 horsepower. But that doesn't mean the news isn't surprising, considering that it will mark the first time Buick has offered a manual transmission in 22 years. The last tri-badge with a manual? The 1989 Skyhawk. 

Via Jalopnik, the new ad from Nissan featuring a revving engine and the voice of Tony Stark -- er, Robert Downey Jr. Its boast? The carmaker put brake-override technology -- soon to be mandated by the government -- in its vehicles six years ago. Its never-mentioned but oh-so-clear target? Toyota.

Way to kick them when they're down, Nissan.

Check it out after the jump.