Restore the car to stock, but build the drivetrain the way you want it. You can always stuff the original motor under your work bench in case some day you want it back.

You can build for power and still have something that's very driveable. I know with 10.5:1 compression 440, 440source stealth or edelbrock rpm heads, rpm intake and headers with a comp xe275hl cam you can make 500hp/550torq, proven several times by mopar mags and some members here. I've got a lunati voodoo cam in my 7.8:1 smogger 440 with 440source heads. That cam has slightly less duration to it than the comp 275, amd I mean slightly less at 4* less duration @050 on the intake and exhaust. And I'm running a whole lot less compression and on the street it drives about the same as it did when I had the stock lo-po 440 cam and stock heads in there. So with a bunch more compression and 4* more cam duration, throttle response on the street should be crisp if your carb and ignition advance are dialed in right.

With a modern cam design and decent flowing heads you can build a lot of power and still have something that runs great on the street. It's not like the old days where you're loafing around town with an outdated mopar 509 hydraulic cam.