Team MADMAX and Zef Eisenberg aiming for 200mph on ice

WE'VE COVERED Zef Eisenberg and his various land speed record exploits in the past here on Visordown. But this might be his wildest stunt yet. The Guernsey-based speed racer is heading to Sweden this weekend for the famous Ice Speed Weekend, where he's aiming to hit 200mph on a five-mile-long frozen lake. Erk.

The event runs at Arsunda on March 1-2, and is a strictly invitation-only gig. Just 100 of the very best in hardcore top-speed record hounds are admitted, and they'll be duking it out on the frozen wastes.

Eisenberg's been hard at work prepping his 350bhp supercharged Hayabusa for the event. The biggest mod is to the tyres - he's fitted 200 titanium spikes to the front and rear hoops, in order to get the grip needed on the slippery ice. There's some amazing physics going on there too, according to Zef. Each titanium spike weighs just 7.5g, but at 200mph, the centripetal force means they generate a force equivalent to 10.5kg each. So, with 200 studs per tyre, that’s more than two tonnes of force trying to rip the tyre apart. The carcasses have been reinforced by a special internal stainless steel belt, and took forty hours to hand-build.

"We’ve put a lot of time and effort into the preparations," said Eisenberg. "Even my girlfriend Mirella has been helping put the titanium spikes into the tyres for nights on end! We are excited to get out there and see how the bike performs.”



The Guinness record for a motorbike on ice stands at 300kmh (187.5mph) and no one has ever achieved 200mph across ice on a motorbike. We'll report back on how Zef gets on over the weekend...