my dad's forgotten to get a new mot on both his last cars ( when it got to 3 years, just forgot! ) and only realised when he traded it in for a new one they told him it hadn't got an mot.
Pretty stupid, and i sort it for him now but he was driving hundreds of miles a week and never had a problem!
I would say its fine driving a distance to an mot place, you can just say it needs a specialist mot centre? ( not as if the car looks standard! )