Encapsulated LED speed board Looking into the grip, I notice that the circuit board isn't like other electros I've peered into. It's a complete and sealed unit. It's water resistant so it won't die in the rain. The manual says don't go swimming, though.

Smaller, lighter 4.8-volt rechargeable metal hydride battery (100,000 shots) with 4.8v Intelli-Charger This is a car charger, and the gun came fully charged, so the hour drive is enough to goose up any low battery. Otherwise you can get an appropriate home charger from Radio Shack.
Five modes of fire (semiautomatic) Since full auto and burst are basically outlawed on any field, those modes are pretty much bullcracky.

LPR pressure is one third less than previous Angels, meaning 33 percent less force is applied by the bolt to the ball. Working Pressure of 180-350psi, reduced by up to 60 percent. It's not usually mentioned by any tinkerers since most tinkerers don't tinker with Angels, but previous Angels shot at a relatively high operating psi. Speed has brought the operating psi down closer to what is considered LP. But that's a whole other article.

Stuff I don't know sh*t about…Do you?
New serviceable ram design-50% more efficient; Sculptured removable hammer (looks like a Rodin); Valve Dwell-Reduced by 60%; Minireg-Low pressure 50% increase in gas flow; LPR serviceable and operating with one third less pressure; Exhaust valve and guide-4X previous flow rate; increased gas galleries 2X air flow; one-piece flash tank for improved gas flow; new bolt is 20% more efficient, typically raising velocity by 40fps at the same working pressure. One comment on all this stuff I know nothing about: The word "serviceable" comes up a lot. I don't know many players who would dare to tinker with their Angels, and when I first looked at Speed I thought I wouldn't be one of those guys either. But after reading the manual and stripping Speed down, I saw how well designed the gun is and especially how well-written the manual is. Kudos to the WDP people for a truly excellent manual and an excellent gun design. The spare parts package includes all the tools you need, including replacement O-rings and spring shims as well.

Cheers Mate
I spoke with Owen Ronayne about all the shit I didn't know and he was kind enough to transcribe wot he tulled me. You gotta love that accent. Its like a cross between the Queen Mother and Tony Blair.

"The main difference with the Speed is this. With the IR3 many people did not like using the COPS system and turned it off during play. The later COPS2 addressed this, but many players are not in the habit of switching on the sensor. With the Speed the system works completely differently, the gun without the Sensor on will fire at an adjustable rate of fire up to 20bps. With the sensor the gun self sets the rate of fire to match the loader at a maximum of 31bps,and enables the unique Ramp-up feature that enables the gun to firesignificantly faster." When he said that on the phone, it sounded a lot different, charming, but different. Thank you, Owen for all your help.

On the Fields of Paint
So there I am, standing in the box. I have Speed set to Sensi-3 with 16bps max, a hopper full of marbs and a 140-round pod in my rhino pack. Don't laugh. I never take more than a spare loader into a game. The whistle blows and I'm off to a right center 40. Halfway there I see some guys standing in the open nonchalantly trying to sweetspot our tape guys. It takes me a few shots to realize I'm even shooting and to hang on to the gun. One goes down immediately and I sweetspot the other when he begins moving to cover. I make my bunker in two moves and get down to some real shooting. Our front tape man failed to get to his bunker, so I have their front tape man to contend with. It takes a little getting used to shooting Speed, once I realize this, I'm able to fire 4-5 shots in a snap, and force him back into his bunker. Looking in the other direction I find quite a few targets of opportunity in their mid and backfield. Finally, our tapeman finds his way to the tape and my suppressive fire pushes their man's ass out the back of his bunker and out of the game. As we sweep the right and move toward the last players, I frown to myself. I only have one ball left. Looks like with this gun I'm gonna need some more paint.

In games that followed, Speed showed me her paces. At one point I was the last man in and stuck midfield knowing I was getting surrounded quickly. I was able to bounce back between sides and over the top for a minute or so, taking out one or two but mostly happy that I could shoot a handful of balls very quickly with each pop out. They came to learn the FEAR! Then I got lit up.

Speed has some kick to it. I had to learn to hang on while I was shooting. With the super-light trigger of Speed, I was shooting with such little effort I'd usually forget about grabbing her tight until a few shots were in the air. This made for some bad snapshooting on my part, since you usually only get one chance to use surprise up front. The kick, however, was very lightweight and when you had a firm hold, The Speed shot very accurately at the midranges and was dead on at close range. Speed's Jacko barrel seemed to be around .686 cal. Shoot straight and it actually does self-clean after a sloppy stick squeege.

I switched Sensi-modes to see what differences I might feel. I had the most trouble with the Sensi mode one and three that skips the shot if a ball isn't chambered. In this mode you have to re-trigger. I'd come out shooting without any firing. This has to do with the feeding of the balls, and leaning off a crouch isn't the best way to ensure good feeding. It didn't happen in Sensi mode 2 and 4, which delays the shot momentarily. Sensi mode controls the cycling time and has an anti-chop function. The shorter cycling allows for faster shooting, and the longer cycling modes allow for a fuller trigger pull so you can shoot longer strings. That's what they say. I couldn't really distinguish between the modes except to say that the Speed trigger is so light that one time I came out shooting and the trigger began bouncing off my finger and did that sweetspot-reactive-trigger-full-auto thing. Full-finger gloves or chubby fingers seem to stimulate this full-auto-type syndrome.

The Sensi mode definitely helped keep me from chopping balls. Without it, I went into gack mode. I put my friends Revolution on and outran the hopper immediately. That was a great test, going into a game to intentionally see if you can chop a ball…Gawd. But with Sensi mode on and set to 11bps I didn't outrun the hopper. All in all, shooting Speed was great fun.

Priced unbelievably at $999, Speed is going to make a big dent in a gun market that has traditionally been priced 30 percent higher. Speed is the fastest shooting gun ever made. When Jessie picked it up, it shot when he slipped his finger onto the trigger. He started saying it would shoot if you yelled at it. But you don't need to yell, you can just whisper and this baby will shoot, and shoot fast. And now I'm thinking I want one for myself just to get that intense juicy feeling again.