Darren, depending on how frequently you've gone to the DMV, you might have some (somewhat less honest) options.
Plan A; pay a $300, one-time impact fee and you'll get an exemption. I did that with a 455-bearing '71 Buick Centurion when I lived in Imperial Beach in the mid-90s.
Plan B: the more high-performance stuff you add, the better your emissions get. I never went that route, but I bet Jim Ignacio has ...
Plan C: It has happened -- I'm sure, to someone's friend -- that titles from departed Beetles have been reunited with VIN plates from same. Hold a seance with a rivet gun, knock it twice, stroke a pen, pass some bills, and you might be able to register a ghost.
Not that I'd advocate that, you understand. That'd be illegal -- but it is possible to condemn one car and breathe new life into a special construct in a way which allows it to be driven. I can think of one candidate for such (is surgery the right word?) off the top of my head.
Sometimes, the owner of a donor isn't really sanguine about the prospects for further life-support options. Sometimes, even though they really don't want to pull the plug on Little Herbie, it HAS to be done sooner or later.
They're everywhere, and most just don't want to admit it. At one time, there were just shy of 4,500,000 potential donors in the U.S. alone. There's got to be one circling the drain near you, dont'cha think?
Say, like this one near my house:
