AWD all the way. It pays off huge when you're dealing with things that tires CAN'T help with (well, not any tire you'd put on this vehicle...) such as loose gravel, etc. As far as I know, the FWD version does not have a locking diff, which means 1 wheel-peal city if you try to pull out hard from a side-street with gravel in the gutter of the perpendicular street. You laugh, but I almost got T-boned in my Infiniti one day exactly for that reason. I punched it with a suitable space in traffic, and it just sat there and spun for 2-3 seconds on loose gravel washed down the side of the road, and I had to throw it in reverse to avoid a wreck. When I installed a locking diff in it, I had no more issues. With AWD, I have found that life is even better. In my Grand Jeep Cherokee (tons of torque), I could floor it onto a road with a high crown/grade from a side street. Usually the high angle of approach plus turn would prevent this. With the AWD Jeep, it was cake. (hard to explain, but with RWD what happened is the unloading of the inside tire as you crested the rise onto the road would cause loss of traction. THis is an example of a steep drive-way, or side-street. I used to HATE it in my 370Z and Z06 and Trans Am, but with the Jeep, it was invisible as an issue).
In short, I found that AWD can turn an "I've messed up because I was in a hurry..." moment into "no problem, how would that have been an issue"?
Haven owned RWD, FWD, and now AWD vehicles, I am really sad that there is no "mid-priced" AWD sports car in America. You are stuck with a Subaru, or a GT-R/Porsche 9114S. Nothing in the $45-60K range. So sad.