Zef Eisenberg: The millionaire who pushed the boundaries of speed

Zef Eisenberg held the world record holder for riding a motorbike on sand

Racer Zef Eisenberg died while attempting to push the barriers in yet another land speed record.

The motorbike enthusiast, 47, broke more than 50 records over the years in vehicles customised and fine-tuned for unprecedented speed and power.

His accolades include holding the iconic "flying mile" record since 2019.

He was killed on Thursday while trying to break the British landspeed record in a high-performance Porsche 911 at an airfield in Yorkshire.

Guernsey-based businessman Mr Eisenberg ran the specialist engineering project Madmax Race Team, aiming to break speed records with extreme performance motorbikes and cars.

Zef Eisenberg, during a previous record bid, on his gas turbine motorcycle

Asked by the BBC in 2018 about what it felt like to ride such extreme speeds, he explained that all you could sense was your heartbeat and feel the "adrenaline rushing".

"You can literally hear the blood pumping through your head."

He said he adopted Metallica's Enter Sandman as his unofficial anthem in 2018 after his success at breaking records on the difficult driving surface.

"It's become my little ritual. Before I do the sand racing, we play it at full volume, get into the mood, get into the mindset and then we go and race."

"I like the difficult surfaces, because they become a challenge.

"You really have to dig down deep and understand the laws of physics... That's what I love, just trying to figure out all of these engineering challenges."

Zef Eisenberg, pictured ahead of his accident at Elvington in September 2016

The famed "flying mile" record was originally set in 1927 by Sir Malcolm Campbell in the Blue Bird at Pendine Sands in Wales and subsequently broken by actor Idris Elba in 2015.

Mr Eisenberg's remarkable run saw him maintain an average speed of 182mph to wrest the record away from the Luther star.

He also holds a Guinness world record for exceeding 225mph (363kmh) on a turbine-powered motorbike in 2015, alongside three FIA records for speeds achieved on an electric motorbike.

Zef Eisenberg pictured in hospital two days after the crash in September 2016

He suffered 11 broken bones and required titanium bolts in his ankle, hip, femur and pelvis.

Mr Eisenberg was badly injured in 2016 when he crashed a gas turbine engine motorbike during a speed meeting at the Elvington airfield where he eventually died.

Despite concerns he would never walk again, Mr Eisenberg went back to pushing the boundaries of speed.

"You go through some pretty nasty thoughts in your head, you know? And then you start thinking do I want to bike again, is that the right thing to do?" he said the following year when he announced his return to racing.

The MaxiMuscle brand grew rapidly as gym culture became more mainstream

A former competitive weightlifter and bodybuilder, he honed his knowledge of sports nutrition with research at the British Medical Library and founded company Maximuscle in 1995,

Fifteen years later it was selling £80m worth of products a year. It was sold to pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline in 2011 for £162m.

Maximuscle said it was "devastated" at the death of the man who had "worked tirelessly" on his "brain child" during his ownership.

A prominent local figure in Guernsey, Mr Eisenberg made the island his home after he sold Maximuscle.

He became a champion of a £200,000 restoration of a much-loved children's playground and helped create Guernsey's first skate park.

Mr Eisenberg leaves behind his partner Mirella D'Antonio and two children.