‘Speed addict’ switches bike for car in new record attempt
LAND speed racer and record-setting motorcycle rider Zef Eisenberg has a new target in his sights.
On the weekend of 6-7 April, the Guernsey-based racer and founder of Maximuscle will attempt to hit yet another land speed record, this time in a car instead of his usual motorbike.
In May 2018, Eisenberg became the first person to exceed 200mph with a wheel-driven vehicle at the famous Pendine Sands in South Wales on his supercharged Suzuki Hayabusa, laying down the marker as the ‘fastest motorbike on sand’ in the world.
Mr Eisenberg and his team are now setting out to beat another record on sand in a specially-built Porsche 911 Turbo.
‘I’m well known for setting record on bikes,’ said Mr Eisenberg, ‘so people started asking me why not cars?’
Mr Eisenberg, who has made a miraculous recovery since surviving Britain’s fastest-ever motorcycle crash in 2016, hopes to become the first person to achieve a land speed record on two and four wheels within a year when he takes to the Pendine Sands next month.
Mr Eisenberg’s MADMAX race team have built a bespoke 1200hp road legal Porsche 911 Turbo to hit the goal of 200mph and beyond.
The extraordinary vehicle has been custom-built by the team after months of meticulous research to make sure it will run well on the sand, but Mr Eisenberg said it is still road legal. ‘We will drive it from the hotel onto the beach and to the restaurant after, hopefully to celebrate,’ he said.
Pendine Sands beach is considered the holy grail of land speed racing, having hosted record-breaking attempts since the start of the 1900s. The first person to set a land speed record at Pendine Sands was Malcolm Campbell in 1927 with an average flying mile of over 174mph.
Hundreds of racers now flock to the beach every year in the hope of setting new records.
After his crash in 2016, when he came off his motorbike travelling at over 230mph, Mr Eisenberg spent three months in hospital and a further three months in a wheelchair.
He defied the odds to race again under a year later at the same race course in Yorkshire on the bike he rebuilt after the crash.
Mr Eisenberg said: ‘I’ve well and truly caught the speed addiction.
‘It’s in my blood.’
