Speed Freaks on ITV4

Published: Fri 28 Jun 2019

Speed Freaks

Buckle up and enjoy the high-speed ride with Keshet Productions' new car show for ITV4

ITV today announced a brand new car show, Speed Freaks, which will air on ITV4 later this summer.

From Keshet Productions, this 6 x 60' series will see entrepreneur and daredevil Zef Eisenberg take on his toughest challenge yet - to break the British land speed record in a car he plans to engineer himself.

With over 40 land speed records currently to his name, he's already done it on a bike at the iconic Pendine Sands in Wales. Now Zef wants to finish what Sir Malcolm Campbell started in 1927 and break the 200mph barrier in a car and, in doing so, become the only person to hold the British land speed records on both two and four wheels.

In order to prepare for this dangerous feat, Zef is scouring the nation to meet fellow motoring mavericks and glean essential engineering know-how from their incredible franken-machines . Whether they've fitted a 24,000cc W12 aero-engine into a car, or built from scratch a full Dakar off-road racer, Zef's going to get behind the wheel and under the bonnet of Britain's fastest cars, bikes and boats.

Inspired by these extraordinary machines, Zef will challenge his own team of mechanics to take a different vehicle each week and make it as fast as humanly possible. Currently in production, each 60 minute episode will feature fantastic vehicles, adrenaline-filled action from behind the wheel, and incredible engineering.

The knowledge they gain will play a crucial part in helping this real-life Tony Stark and his team prepare Zef's crazy 1200hp specially built road-legal Porsche 911 Turbo S for the series finale - his death-defying record attempt at Pendine Sands. Will Speed Freaks see Zef succeed and achieve a life-long ambition to take his place amongst the British legends of land speed?

Speed Freaks has been commissioned for ITV4 by Paul Mortimer, Head of Digital Channels and Satmohan Panesar, Commissioning Editor, Factual Entertainment. Executive Producers are Stephanie Fox and David G Williams from Keshet Productions. The series is distributed by Keshet International.

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.

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UK Land Speed Record Attempt

Daredevil Zef Eisenberg and the Speed Freaks crew will descend on Pendine Sands to film Zef's attempt to become the first person to break and hold the British land speed records on both bike and car. The goal is to hit 200mph and beyond in Zef's crazy 1200hp specially built road-legal Porsche 911 Turbo S.

Prior to 1924, all land speed records were set on race tracks. Longer than any straight, Pendine Sands is a seven mile stretch of Welsh beach which has since become the scene of both incredible triumphs and terrible tragedies. On 4 February 1927 Sir Malcolm Campbell set the land speed record there in his 2300hp Bluebird Railton, with an average flying mile speed of 174.224 mph. Less than a month later, John Parry Thomas tragically lost his life attempting to break this record and Campbell never returned, despite originally setting his sights on 200mph.

On 8 May 2015, the actor Idris Elba broke the Pendine Sand land speed record with an average flying mile speed of 180.361mph in a 650hp Bentley Continental GT Speed. On 6 April 2019, Zef snatched the record back again with a new average speed of 182.49mph on a 400hp super-charged motorbike. Can Zef achieve the goal of being the only person to hold a bike and car record within the same year, other than world famous bike and car racer John Surtees?

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Notes to editors:

About presenter Zef Eisenberg

Since selling his business in 2010, entrepreneur and daredevil Zef Eisenberg has been chasing his biggest passion - creating one-off, engineered bespoke bikes and cars capable of setting land speed records. He'll take the best vehicle available and make it better still, often by increasing the power to double or triple its power, sometimes by replacing the regular engine with an ex-military jet turbine to create a franken-machine capable of truly terrifying speeds.

Zef's hands on approach doesn't stop with the engineering - he's also the test driver and, with it, one of the fastest men on the planet. Zef currently holds over 40 land speed records, notably; the worlds fastest turbine bike (234mph), the UKs fastest (no-fairing) naked bike (225.6mph), world's fastest rider on sand ever at 201.5mph, amongst many others. He's all about pushing himself and his machines to the limit, regularly risking life and limb in his pursuit. In September 2016 Zef almost paid the ultimate price, when disaster struck at 234mph during a motorcycle record attempt, riding a jet turbine motorbike.

After 11 months of numerous operations and rehabilitation and, Zef was back racing again in under a year. In his determination to show he was back , Zef became the first man to break the 200mph barrier on sand on a motorbike when he recorded a top speed of 201.572mph at Pendine in May 2018. The goal to achieve the same feet in a car is now the ultimate goal and desire.

About Keshet Productions

Established in 2012, Keshet Productions is a British independent production company owned by global distributor and producer, Keshet International. It develops, produces and co-produces original scripted and non-scripted programmes for the UK market, such as Singletown (ITV2) and Celebrity Showmance (ITV2) as well as making local versions of Keshet formats, including The A Word (BBC One) and Loaded (Ch4). Based in London, Keshet Productions is

LINK:	https://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/speed-freaks-itv4...
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