The only time AWD helps is when accelerating your braking, and corner speed are unaffected by the 4wd.
What i wrote above was a bit misleading, i'm sure there are fairly good tyres out there espcially for 300 bucks or so a corner.
But i would never get el cheapo's for a car with that kind of performance, and from what it seems your going to get you haven't done that.
Happy motoring!!
I used to love buying tyres for my skyline, something about having all this expensive rubber underneath you, now i hate having to buy tyres for my ol bluebird.