Welcome to Week 2 of the Logitech Challenge, where Gran Turismo 5 Prologue owners can compete to win Logitech steering wheels and other prizes. This week’s competition challenges players to post their best lap time on Eiger Nordwand with one of the available sports cars. In addition, five randomly-selected players will be picked, regardless of final lap time, to receive a Logitech Driving Force GT wheel. Here are some driving tips straight from Polyphony to help you out:

The Eiger Nordwand course, is modeled on top of a real life mountain range in Switzerland, and is a difficult course with tight repeating corners. The key to improving your lap time lies in raising your speed as much as possible between the three full throttle sections of the course. In order to do this, you need to maximize your exit speed out of the corner just before each of these sections.

So how do you raise your exit speed? The answer is very simple - follow the very basic strategy of slow-in, fast out. You want to make sure you don’t enter the corner too fast, braking early and approaching the corner at a safe speed, and increase your speed coming out of the corner with a gradual exit line. The more gradual your exit line is, the less you will have to turn the steering wheel, and the faster you will be able to give it full throttle.

The other thing you want to keep in mind are the ups and downs of the course. Because there is a large variation in elevation here, there are large inclines on this course, and this greatly changes the way that load is placed on your four tires. For example, in an upward incline the load of the car moves towards the rear, so the steering response will worsen, and the car will be more prone to understeer. Try to keep in mind where the center of gravity of your car is at as you make your way through the course.

Let’s take a look at a run through Eiger using the R34 GT-R. Because the car uses an electronically-controlled 4WD (Atesa E-TS), it provides very sharp handling and has an advantage accelerating out of corners. However, because the vehicle is on the heavy side, coming in at 1500kG, it has a slight disadvantage in tight corners. The powerful 280 horsepower engine gives it plenty of power to compensate for the extra weight. Whether you go with a lighter 2WD or a heavier 4WD in this challenge is something that only you can decide. Try the course in a car that best matches your driving style.

This course immediately starts off with tight, repeating corners. On the first right turn, you are prone to brake late, so if you are not using the driving line display option, use the flashing of the suggested gear as a guide for how early to brake so that you do not experience too much understeer. If you go around the first corner too wide, you will pay for it as you enter the next left corner. The N2 tires will prove to be a challenge to maintain grip on the course, but the 4WD may help to compensate for this. Also, you can drive over the gravel on the insides of the corners, but keep in mind that the tires going over gravel will temporarily lose traction.

Next up is a tight left corner with a steep downward incline. Though it is more difficult in comparison to a normal corner, you will want to control your speed to maintain grip with the N2 tires. It’s not going to be possible to clear the corner at full throttle, so you’ll need to brake slightly, or let off the throttle to drop your speed and turn in. If you can hit the clipping point here, it will make your exit very smooth, raising your exit speed. If you don’t hit the clipping point here, be careful as you’ll be more prone to hit the outer wall. The downward incline on this corner also helps reduce the chance of understeer.

The following corner can be taken at an intermediate speed, turning widely to the right. Here you will want to go from the outside, stay on the inside, then outside again, but there’s no need to stick that closely to the inside of the track. It is more important to exit the corner with the accelerator at full throttle. The low grip of the N2 tires may require some extra finesse as you round the corner. In the case of an R34, once you are in the corner and the car stabilizes, you will probably be able to give it full throttle with no problems. If you experience understeer, you are probably giving it full throttle too early. Exiting the corner at full throttle is crucial, as the next section of track is uphill.

Though the next corner appears to be a mild, high speed corner, you can lose grip easily and end up with severe understeer or oversteer because you are on the apex of an upward incline. To clear this section smoothly, you must decelerate slightly in advance. It’s a simple solution, but this is the most effective way. Note however that the corner itself is very mild, so there is no need to decelerate a lot. You can just step slightly on the brake. You can also just let off on the accelerator as well, but you will gain more stability if you use the foot brake to slow down the car quickly. You’ll want to brake just before the clipping point, and give it full throttle once you are past it as you exit towards the outside of the corner.

Two right turns continue in this final section, but it is best to think of both corners as a single corner when making your approach. You want to hit the two clipping points on the insides of the two corners, while keeping the same steering angle throughout as much as possible. Also important here is the braking during the initial entry. The entry point before the corners is a loose S curve, and you may be tempted to turn the steering wheel to match this, but you should brake here as straight as possible. In this way you will shorten your braking distance, and the movement of the car will not be disturbed as much. Once you are in the corner, control your speed with the accelerator and be careful not to go too far to the outside of the corner.

Be sure to hit the clipping point on the final corner so you can have a good exit speed for the best lap time.