Maurice "Maus" Gatsonides (February 14, 1911 in Gombong,

Kebumen Regency Kebumen Regency () is a Regencies of Indonesia, regency in the southern part of the Indonesian province of Central Java. It covers an area of 1,281.12 km2 and had a population of 1,159,926 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 201 ...

– November 29, 1998 in

Heemstede Heemstede () is a town and a municipality in the Western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. In 2021, it had a population of 27,545. Located just south of the city of Haarlem on the border with South Holland, it is one of the richest ...

) was a Dutch

rally driver Rallying is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (sometimes called "rally racing" in United States), navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed ...

and inventor. Gatsonides was born in

Central Java Central Java (, ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogya ...

in the former

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

(now

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

). He founded the company "Gatsometer BV" in the Netherlands in 1958. Today, Gatsonides' fame largely results from inventing the

Gatso Gatso is the brand that Gatsometer BV (now known as Sensys Gatso Group when Sensys acquired Gatso in 2015) use on their speed cameras and red light cameras. The most commonly encountered Gatso speed cameras emit radar beams to measure the speed ...

speed camera, a speed measuring device used today by many police forces to catch

speeding Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed, expre ...

drivers. He originally invented the Gatso speed camera to measure his cornering speed in an attempt to improve his driving.

Motor racing

Gatsonides is primarily known for inventing the

speed camera In kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a non-negative scalar quantity. Introdu ...

, but his primary interest was in motor racing. Maurice was passionate about racing and raced in many events. In 1949, he built his own car. It was nicknamed the "Platje" (English: "Little Flat One or Pubic Lice (Pthirus pubis)") because of its aerodynamic shape. The car caused a sensation at the Dutch Zandvoort Racetrack, passing all of the opponents including MG's. Maurice was forced to sell the Flatty to pay creditors after trying to put his own V8 sportscar into production. The Flatty however, survived. It was found abandoned in the 1970s and has now been restored by Joop Bruggeman. It is the last-known surviving Gatso car. Gatsonides won the

Monte Carlo Rally The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo) is a rallying event organized each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. From its inception in 1911 by Albert I, Prince of Monaco, Prince Albert I, the rally ...

in 1953 driving a

Ford Zephyr The Ford Zephyr is an executive car manufactured by Ford of Britain from 1950 until 1972. The Zephyr and its luxury variants, the Ford Zodiac and Ford Executive, were the largest passenger cars in the British Ford range from 1950 until their r ...

References

External links

Company history at RitzSite
1911 births 1998 deaths Dutch rally drivers Dutch racing drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers 20th-century Dutch inventors 20th-century Dutch businesspeople People from Kebumen Regency World Sportscar Championship drivers {{Europe-rally-bio-stub