Zef Eisenberg

In 1995, Eisenberg founded sports nutrition brand Maximuscle with £3,000.[9] Initially supplying whey-based supplements, the company's product range grew to include drink powders, edible gels, and protein bars.

Maximuscle was the first UK sports nutrition brand to have its products screened under World Anti-Doping Agency rules.[7]

In 2010, Maximuscle was selling £80 million worth of products per year.[7] In 2011, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) bought Maximuscle for £162 million.[10][11] At the time, Maximuscle was Europe's best-selling sports nutrition brand.[8] Eisenberg continued on in a consultancy role with GSK for Maximuscle. The German food giant Krüger bought Maximuscle from GSK in January 2018.[12]

Eisenberg ran Guernsey-based Maxicorp. The company is active in property investment, autosports racing, and engineering.[7]

The property business has bought and sold properties worth around £210 million in London, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar.[10] It bought BBC Villers House in 2012 for £16 million,[13] with plans to develop Ealing Broadway Crossrail station, office block and retail.

The engineering autosports arm builds bespoke high-speed vehicles. It also designed and manufactured the Eisenberg V8, the world's smallest and lightest V8 engine motorbike.[14] The Madmax ultra-speed motorbike race team is part of Maxicorp.[15] Maxicorp is the registered trademark holder of Eisenberg[16] and Madmax[17] in the UK and EU.[18]

Eisenberg set up Madmax Race Team in 2011 from Guernsey. The Madmax is a specialised engineering team that develop motorbikes, cars, quads, and land speed vehicles. The Madmax Race Team is behind multiple world land speed records on bikes, quads, and cars, with over 50 land speed, British, world, and Guinness records to its name, including the world's fastest electric unfaired bike.[19]

Eisenberg, who was a long time fan of the Isle of Man TT, sponsored three times IOM TT podium winner Daley Mathison and Dr Miguel Gimeno Fabra on the Nottingham of University (NOU) Electric motorbike under the Zero TT class for 2019. The NOU bike had been designed to be more powerful and capable than all its previous years. The day before Madmax Team rider Daley Mathison was meant to ride the Zero TT bike to number one podium position, but Daley was killed in the Superbike crash.[20] Zef Eisenberg promised Daley's wife Natalie, and family that this was unfinished business and he would take the NOU bike to world record glory himself as a tribute and final send-off to Daley.

The Madmax / NOU electric motorbike was re-engineered to be more powerful than ever and on 21/22 September, Eisenberg, along with the help of Dr Miguel achieved four FIM world speed records (at Elvington, Yorkshire), wearing Daley's actual 'daisy' kneesliders and with Daley's wife Natalie present, Eisenberg fulfilled his goal of making the bike into a world record bike for Daley.[21] This technological feat achieved in record time, inspired the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) club to name Eisenberg as the winner of the SIMMS award, a highly prestigious accolade, only given in years of exceptional motorsport performance.[22]

The autosports arm builds bespoke high-speed bikes and cars. The brand manufactures the Eisenberg V8 (EV8), the world's smallest and lightest V8 engine.[14] under the Eisenberg Racing banner.[23] Eisenberg has created a partnership with Prodrive, one of the UK's largest motorsport engineering brands to develop a limited production run of the 480 hp motorbike.[24] The bike is considered to be one of, if not the most, powerful production bike ever made, with a speed in excess of 225 mph, a redline of 10,500rpm, more than twice the torque of a Triumph Rocket 3, up to 500 hp (with race fuel), but weighing just 280 kg dry and a wheelbase of 1650mm, no longer than a Ducati Diavel.[25] The bike is expected to cost around £150,000 when launched sometime in 2021.[26]

His success in land speed racing led Eisenberg to become a TV presenter/racer with a new 'high octane' TV series called Speed Freaks, a six-episode production on ITV4,[4] produced by Keshet. The series saw Eisenberg take on his toughest challenge yet - to break the British land speed record in a car he planned to engineer himself. Speed Freaks was commissioned for ITV4 by Paul Mortimer, Head of Digital Channels and Satmohan Panesar, Commissioning Editor, Factual Entertainment.

David Williams, Keshet Productions said, "This high-octane series features a feast of items and VTs geared up to indulge anyone with an interest in cars, motorsports and engineering. Zef's need for speed and desire to break that land-speed record is infectious and makes for compelling viewing."[27] In May 2019, Eisenberg achieved his goal of the fastest ever wheel-driven vehicle (bike or car) at Pendine sands, with speeds exceeding 210 mph.[28]

Eisenberg also appeared on several other TV shows, most notably The Bike Show with Henry Cole, with the Madmax Turbine bike.[5] Eisenberg, his Madmax Turbine bike, and his infamous 230 mph crash featured in Guy Martin's Channel 4 documentary about the world's fastest tractor with JCB.[29]

On 18 September 2016, Eisenberg crashed on a turbine-powered motorbike at 234 mph at Elvington Airfield, Yorkshire. He was airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary.[44][45]

Eisenberg broke 11 bones in the crash, including his pelvis, hip and femur.[46] As of July 2017, Eisenberg said he had "90% recovered".[46] Eisenberg said a strict exercise and nutrition programme was responsible for his recovery.[7]

As of September 2017, Eisenberg appeared to have fully recovered. On the anniversary of the crash, he returned to Elvington Airway, Yorkshire, to race on the same bike.[46][32][47][48][49] He was nominated in his home island of Guernsey for the 'overcoming adversity' awards twice in 2017 and 2018.[50]

Eisenberg died on 1 October 2020 while attempting a British land speed record at RAF Elvington, Yorkshire, aged 47.[6]