Just some newb questions

Hey everyone, what's up. This post is a little long, so bear with me. I just started getting into cars a few months ago, after I found out my dad had an old triumph spitfire in a garage up north (with an ENORMOUS 1.3 liter engine inside...). I have begun restoring it (because it was free and making one with some relative performance is only about 4 grand + it looks good), however originally I wanted to restore some american muscle, like a 69 camaro, 64 or 75 vette (like my friends at school), or a 68 mustang. I KNOW that not all of these technically fall under the classical definition of muscle car, PLEASE don't start that argument here, I've already read all the other pages where newbs have questions and it turns into two people arguing over definitions or Chevy/Pontiac/Ford/Mopar is better.... Anyway, none of my questions are brand-related, but more technical really, so should be pretty easy for you. When I eventually do get a musclecar (let's just assume it's a 67-69 camaro, as I really like the lines), I want it to have a fair amount of power while still being driveable, but in particular I want a fast, hard acceleration. I'm not really interested in racing, so I don't really care what it's top speed is as long as I can at least go up to mid 90's for highway driving. From what I've been able to learn (and I am in no way sure of this), better acceleration comes from having strong low end torque, so I was thinking of putting a midsize (396-454) range BB engine from whatever company has a block/engine most suited to this purpose in their. So with that in mind, what engine would that be? What favors torque, higher or lower revs and shorter or longer stroke? I also would like it to have some handling ability, which would probably mean IRS, so what would I substitute that could handle the torque I'm interested in? Should I use a corvette rear end? And how does differential ratio influence top speed/acceleration/fuel consumption? I think that the higher ratios have a higher top speed, worse accelertaion, and higher fuel consumption, am I correct? I'm trying to figure out all the logistics of this car now so when I get it, I can bascially just throw it together... Thanks for all your help.

Find a 350 Z-28 and you'll have handling plus sufficient power for excellent acceleration without big block swap shenanigans.

Shenanigans!