The 5.9 is a pretty good base to have a fun street strip car. Without changing the pistons, your limitations aren’t bad ones. Depending on how far you want to push the strip effort on a street strip car, you could do pretty darn good. But the way you get there May make the car and/or yourself a little unhappy because it will need more gear, converter and cam for a low 12 or high 11, where as 440 will require a good bit less.
The 5.9 is just easier and cheaper at this point.
(Assuming the 5.9 is a runner and the 440 is a builder.)
