2014 Herald Newcastle Home Show opens Friday

WHAT do sustainable homes and V8-powered custom cars have in common? Absolutely nothing.

Unless, of course, the man responsible for building the sustainable homes is also the man responsible for building the heavily-modified sedan, a vehicle which, like the houses, is also sustainable and has a very environmentally friendly carbon-neutral footprint.

The car, a heavily reworked 1967 Ford Falcon going by the name of ZeroD, is appearing at this weekend’s Herald Home Show with its creator, Mick Fabar, on the Green Homes Australia stand.

‘‘I’d been looking into the future and trying to figure out what kind of car my son would be building when he was 16. The challenge sort of evolved from there. I wanted to create a street machine that ideally had a zero effect on the environment in its design and construction and when it was being driven,” Mr Fabar said.

So he built what is claimed to be the world’s first sustainable, carbon-neutral car and had it certified as such by Queensland’s Bond University.

The car that morphed into ZeroD was bought in Maitland for $1000. During its transformation it was fitted with a turbocharged 7.0litre, V8 diesel engine modified to run on bio-diesel fuel. It produces a very healthy 445kilowatts of power, about the same as that of a racing V8 Supercar.

Everything on the car, says Mr Fabar, is recycled, including a number of other parts brought over from other cars and modified to fit.

‘‘We built it because it reflects our sustainable homes. As a hobby we build street machines and hot rods so we wanted to build a sustainable car.’’

The powered-up eco-warrior is a true history maker and is the first green street machine to win an elite car show prize in Australia with wins at the prestigious Maguires Motorex, the Street Machine nationals and last year’s Summernats in Canberra.

ZeroD is on display at the Herald Home Show Saturday and Sunday at the Green Homes Australia display stand at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre and Showgrounds.