For me, working on these cars, restoring them and caring for them is intended to reflect the past and some of the finer moments of transportation innovation, styling and values that no longer exist. If you want to turn them into something that they never were or never represented, then that is your choice.
I like to keep my cars original to reflect a time when cars were really beautiful and had qualities that we will never see again. Our cars make me look back at times that were better than all the problems of this current world.
So if you just want to ignore those interests, then go ahead and make them something they never were intended to be and honestly, they don't make "performance" vehicles since any current vehicle will outhandle them, get better mileage, leave more rubber when you peel out and so on. Such cars represent nothing to me except one person's idea of "cool".