Front Wheel Drive (FWD)
Your car will not accelerate so well because the traction has shifted to the rear wheels and they are simply sitting there as the traction-less front wheels are attempting to pull the car forward.
Golf - Mini

Rear Wheel Drive (RWD)
There is more power to the ground when you accelerate because your rear wheels have more traction.

A rear wheel drive car can change direction dramatically by braking, turning, then accelerating, and thus weakening rear traction, sending it forward, using that traction to turn the car, and then sending it back to the rear again to push the car into the new heading.
BMW - Charger - DeLorean - GT - Maserati - Mustang - Vette - Viper

All-Wheel Drive (4WD)
Attempts to compensate for both these situations by allowing power to be split to all wheels.

In all-wheel-drive when you accelerate, the rear wheels do most of the work, and when you brake, the front wheels get more grip. It doesn't matter because they all drive the car anyway. So you may think that the best drivetrain is an all wheel drive one, and on the face of it, you'd be right. A light, all-wheel-drive, powerful car is a very difficult thing to beat a la Porsche 959 and Lamborghini Diablo. The problem with these cars, though, is that you lose some control of where the power goes, and how you may control it.

The all-wheel-drive makes the car more difficult to easily gradient power. It becomes a case of almost all or nothing, traction, or no traction. Don't let this be discouraging, all-wheel-drive cars are excellent, they simply are not as refined, nor as powerful in the right hands, as the rear wheel drive equivalent.
Audi TT - Diablo - Porsche

Weight Distribution

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