As Dan wrote to me, Kees is a bit of an enigma in the espresso world - one of the first things he said to me was he did not want to be photographed "as it all was about his work and not himself". Enigmatic, I would say.
I really had a very good visit there and accidentally a German barista Fabian Schmidt was there as well, Fabian could not keep his eyes off the Speedster Mk II and repeatedly said "besser gibt's nicht" (German for "you can't get it any better").
Is it different from Mk I? Totally.
Homebrewn group. No La Marzocco - everything Kees van der Westen.
The proper Dutch pronunciation of Kees' name being almost like "case" in English, Fabian's wordplay "beauty case" was very appropriate.
I will do a serious write up, and with peer review help hope to have that turned into a Feature article with higher res pictures.
Regards
Peter
P.S. so, for now, some smaller pictures you can look at, if you promise to not drool too much.
PID in the background. The cups are a small set of test cups. The "real" design Kees envisions is totally different.
Freehand shots at available light in Kees' workshop. Luckily the camera has image stabilization. I had the x-wide converter on and at 4000x3000 noticed some glare. I will have to redo a number of pictures - Kees volente.
Notice the new group. I noted somewhere else one Speedster Mk I special version Kees did for his brother reminded me of the Bentley 1929 Speed Six era and type of design. Watch the pump handle.
Do you see the key hole next to the (right hand) hot water faucet? Thats not a key hole. It is a plunger valve that comes out - it implements progressive infusion and gives a visual clue about the process.
What would that old US TV character Bundy say, bootie time? Not sure what it meant as a non-native English speaker, but I guess it applies.
Absolutely gorgeous 
