The Mission:
Remember when dealer brochures, magazine inserts, and weird fold-out specs were a thing? Then you’re in the right place. This site exists to keep that stuff alive.
When those original papers get tossed, water-damaged, or buried in an attic, the history goes with them.
The goal isn’t just archiving spec sheets, but it’s preserving the context, design, and personality of vehicles that defined an era.
No paywalls, sign-ups, or watermarks. If it’s in the archive, it’s free for the community to browse and download.
Who and why?
My name is Mario Termine. I was born after the 90s, but never mind that.
I’m not the type who only cares about quarter-mile times or what it makes on the dyno. It needs character. That oddball 90s compact (I’m looking at you, Geo), a PT Cruiser, or even a 50cc moped that barely gets you to 30mph.
The spark for this project started with my love of the original advertisements for the Geo Tracker and Suzuki Sidekick. They have so much character and personality, especially compared to what we get these days. But once you start digging for obscure automotive print media, you realize how much incredible stuff is floating around out there in danger of being lost forever. So here we are.
While my focus is on the 80s and 90s, if it’s a piece of auto history from any era, then it has a home here.
The site name, Driveback Machine, is an allusion to the Wayback Machine (a digital archive of the World Wide Web).
How It Works:
The Hardware: I self-host this entire site from a Linux server I built and configured myself. The site runs WordPress and the archives are stored on a raid array.
The Scans: Many of the high-resolution media here were scanned by me with the Bookeye 5 overhead scanner at NC State University. For everything else, it’s crowdsourced (by you!). That means scan quality varies from museum-grade to ‘forgot to wipe the grease off your iPhone lens’. All contributions are welcomed and appreciated.
Get Involved:
If you’d like to contribute your own media to the archive, please click here.
If you’d like to donate to help keep the site going, please click here. For any donations of $25 USD or more, I will mail you one of the random magazine cutouts that I have scanned for the site (USA only).
Bonus material:
My 1994 Geo Tracker, who started it all. 80 horsepower of fury.
