[Banning]

Good information guys, thanks.

Dave is correct that the VIN should be checked first to see the status of the registration.

Jeff posted a lot of interesting info, I may have no choice but to give up my Special Construction status in favor of registering the car in an earlier model year.
This is because if I present my old registration and Pink Slip, I will most likely be stuck with the car being a 1976 model and subject to smog laws. This would ruin the Carrera and be very costly. I would at least have to have a spare motor from a 1976 or later year to pass smog that I could change out every two years.

I don't believe that I non-opped the car, it just fell of registration records about 15 years ago.

Since I will need to have the car verified, I need a couple of weeks to get prepared to drive. They will give me a one day pass to drive it to verification. After that I will be smog-exempt and ready to drive legally on California streets.

Back in the mid to late 70's, I drove the car without plates. Since I wasn't a "pull over" kind of guy when in the Carrera (back then), plates seemed to be a liability. This proved to be good planning the night they came after me while parked across from Fire Station 99. No plates probably saved me from going to jail and having my car impounded. The story is back in the thread somewhere. Derek knows where.

I don't advocate driving without plates now in 2008. The law is more strict now, and I would advise caution in violating any driving laws.