Kees van der Westen Speedster, Mirage and Spirt
Kees van der Westen has been producing cutting edge Espresso Machines since 1984 from his workshop in the Netherlands. Designer of many iconic machines, Kees has built three models although he has built many one off customs: the Mirage (first release 2001), Speedster (first release 2008) and Spirit (first release 2012).
The machines are built to perfection and so beautifully put together they really are works of art. We are biased towards the Kees range as we really do have a soft spot for his work as Kees was the favourite machine builder of Dom Laranjinha, the founder of Coffee Parts.
The Mirage was built in 2001, equipped with the technically elegant and efficient thermo-syphon heat exchanger system with many updated technical details, the Mirage was an instant success. Through the years it was constantly further refined.
The current model of the Speedster was built in 2008, however originally there where a few made in 2001 as a fun project for family and friends of Kees. Kees developed their own large saturated group with boiler, used for the first time in the series Speedster. The machine is equipped with a fully separate large steam boiler. Several means of pre-infusion as standard.
The Kees Spirit made in 2012 is in fact a large, commercial Speedster. The very first prototype was introduced at the London S.C.A.E. show in 2010. In 2012 a pre-production series was started. From there the Spirit developed into the complete machine it is now.