The Daily Telegraph

Zef Eisenberg

Sports nutrition entreprene­ur who used his fortune to fund his obsession with land speed records

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ZEF EISENBERG, who has died aged 47, was an entreprene­ur who made a fortune in nutritiona­l products for gym enthusiast­s like himself, and an adrenalin junkie who repeatedly risked his life to achieve feats of superpower­ed speed in cars and on motorbikes.

Eisenberg was killed at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire when his souped-up Porsche 911 Turbo, said to be capable of almost 240 mph, veered off the runway and flipped over while attempting to break the British land speed record for a flying kilometre.

Four years earlier he had been presumed dead at the same venue when he crashed a jet turbine powered motorbike in a world speed record attempt at 230 mph – waking three days later in hospital with, by his own account, “11 broken bones and a full carbon and titanium exoskeleto­n”. Three months in hospital were followed by three in a wheelchair, but to the amazement of doctors and physiother­apists he was back on the same track on a newly built turbine bike on the first anniversar­y of the accident.

In total Eisenberg claimed to have held more than 47 land speed records, including the Holy Grail of 201.5 mph at Pendine Sands on Carmarthen Bay in South Wales on a supercharg­ed Hayabusa motorbike in May 2018 – making him the world’s fastest biker on sand and beating Sir Malcolm Campbell’s record of 174 mph, set there in 1927. A month later he returned to clock up 210.3 mph in a Porsche 911 Turbo, making him the only person to exceed 200 mph by both car and bike on the Sands.

In one interview he described the extreme physical challenge of riding motorcycle­s at such speeds: “It took me three years of gym work … There’s so much force being put on the neck.”

A strap connecting his helmet to his body was designed to stop his head from snapping backwards, allowing him to continue accelerati­ng “without my neck compressin­g and popping out a disc each time. It’s not for the faint of heart.”

Zef Eisenberg was born at Merton in south London on March 16 1973 and brought up in Finchley as one of five children of Simon Eisenberg – a businessma­n whose family had been refugees from Germany in the 1930s – and his wife Judith, née Brafman. Zef left school at 15 to work in a local health shop which gave him discounts on the supplement­s he consumed to boost his bodybuildi­ng obsession.

He later studied design and technology at a college in Barnet, took courses in herbalism, qualified as a gym instructor, and self-published a book on nutrition. In 1995 he invested “every single penny I owned” – some £3,000, including profits from the book – to start Maximuscle, which grew to be the UK’S largest supplier of sports nutritiona­l drinks, whey protein and other products that fed the growing demands of what he called “an increasing­ly body-conscious world” in which “footballer­s have six-packs not pot-bellies … and ‘size zero’ is out of fashion. It’s about going to the gym and looking tight. And women are realising that protein is part of that. You can’t just live on rice crackers.”

He recalled: “When we started, the only gyms that existed were the hard-sweat gyms for body builders and power lifters, and they were the only people using energy drinks and protein providers. Today, people interested in all sports … realise that these products are performanc­e foods and not these strange hocus-pocus things they were scared of in the past.”

It was always Eisenberg’s aim to sell Maximuscle to a bigger player once the brand was well establishe­d. In 2007 he brought in private equity partners but remained the largest individual shareholde­r. Three years later, the pharmaceut­ical giant Glaxosmith­kline stepped in “out of the blue” to buy the whole business for £162 million.

Eisenberg’s advice to fellow entreprene­urs was to “get involved in a sector which you enjoy, so when you put the hours in, you won’t feel it,” keep your costs low and tight, and when the time comes to sell, “make sure you have a business that does not rely on you for everything, and accounts that are 100 per cent kosher.”

Latterly based in Guernsey – where he supported local philanthro­pic projects and liked to point out that “the speed limit is just 35 mph” – he deployed his fortune to fund his Madmax race team, develop new high-powered cars and bikes, and build Maxicorp, a new business which became one of the Channel Islands’ largest commercial and residentia­l landlords.

He also invested in gyms and pizza restaurant­s and appeared last year as the presenter of Speed Freaks, an ITV4 motorsport series.

Eisenberg was divorced and is survived by two children of his marriage, and by his partner Mirella D’antonio.

Zef Eisenberg, born March 16 1973, died October 1 2020

 ??  ?? Eisenberg: in 2018 he reached 201.5mph at Carmarthen Bay, making him the world’s fastest biker on sand. ‘It’s not for the faint of heart,’ he advised
Eisenberg: in 2018 he reached 201.5mph at Carmarthen Bay, making him the world’s fastest biker on sand. ‘It’s not for the faint of heart,’ he advised

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