Dash, for your interest, I'm not fighting a red tape battle. We have fairly new options for rego over here now- full rego, in which case I can more or less do what I like as long as the car can be passed with an engineer's report on the basis that it is classed as a commercial vehicle/ full chassis. Annual rego cost around $1600, drive every day of the week.
Or: Historic rego: Car needs to be 'unmodified' and over 30 years old. Only needs a very basic annual roadworthy check and a certificate from a car club indicating current membership and that the car is in 'original' trim. Annual rego cost is $43 plus car club fees. 60 drive days per calendar year plus club events. Perfect for a weekend driver and the odd car show.
Or: Conditional rego: A category made to suit things like tractors, forklifts, ATV's, Golf carts etc, which also seems to cover Hot Rods and other modified vehicles. Same deal re car club membership, drive days per year and annual cost as historic rego.
Or: Rally rego: don't know all the ins and outs but seems to be a thing so rally cars can be driven to and from events, or from stage to stage on national roads, or to and from repairs etc. Also relatively cheap, but can't be used for a Sunday drive.
So we have a few good options here really but we have to play by the rules. For example, on Historic I have to keep a very simple logbook of my 60 days. We have police cars here with number plate detection cameras which pick out unregistered vehicles etc out of the traffic, they also log Historic and conditional plates. One day, if i get pulled over for any reason, police will ask to see my logbook and go and check it against the log in their system. Each missing entry in my logbook is a $2000 fine, they notify my car club who in turn give me the finger and it's all over red rover!
Given my yellow ute is so clean and original and has a bit of interesting history, I think it's best kept fairly fairly original and historic rego is good for the car's purpose and cheap. The blue ute, with the engine and bodywork mods i have in mind will end up suiting the conditional rego or rally rego categories. I figure the time and money is better spent on the blue ute with a 4g63t with more scope to tune some real power and torque, and it will mainly be used around a rally circuit and track days/ hill climbs etc.
Sounds like you know your stuff with the Starion turbo/ TBI scene.