Auto Racing: front wheel drive vs rear wheel drive, wrc cars, citroen xara

Question
a buddy of mine is claiming front wheel drive is much better than rear wheel drive for rally racing. is there any way to get a definitive answer on this? We of course both agree that all wheel drive is the best, but if you could only have one end driving the car, which would it be?

Answer
depends on what surface you are racing on

if it is smooth grippy tarmac then FWD will have an advantage as it will be more safe and controllable... RWD might tend to lose rear end grip and spin on itself when pushed hard (AKA oversteer)... OK FWD will tend to understeer but it is way more correctable than a RWD oversteering on tarmac

on a lose surface it is a whole different story... RWD will eat a FWD as the later will be racing in the "understeering championship" if you know what i mean... it will tend to go straight on each bend if you are using the accelerator so you will either go off road or be very slow due to lack of grip on the front

i recall some 10 years ago on the WRC the Citroen Xara FWD gave hard time to all WRC machines on 2 consecutive tarmac ralley and actually came 1st and 2nd beating much stronger WRC cars... but hat was due to the fact they are lighter as well but you get the point that they - FWD machines - are very competitive on dry, grippy surface... any loss of grip and they are no good.