I'm in northern VA and have had antique plates on my '65 for ~15 years now. I've never been bothered. I think you'd only have issues in a few cases:
* The police notice you commuting in it regularly
* You are in an accident and are not using the car in the specified way
* You are in an accident and not having maintained your self inspection could be reason to shift the cause.
* You get pulled over out of range.
I recently registered my zr1 and didn't hesitate to go with the antique plates. Bonus is they look great on my black car. What I haven't done is put the front license plate on. But, that is another discussion.
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