Welcome to Week 1 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 High Speed Ring with one of the available mid-sized 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:

As its name implies, the High Speed Ring is a high speed course consisting of long straight-aways and intermediate speed corners. The key to driving fast on this course is in minimizing deceleration and raising your cornering speed. In order to do this, you need to drive on a racing line (path) that will minimize your steering angle, and control your vehicle’s speed with the accelerator rather than the foot brake.

One section that has a major effect on your lap time is the S corner part-way through the track. You have to be careful not to go in too fast into the first right corner, and raise your escape speed out of the latter left corner as much as possible. This is the secret to significantly reducing your lap time. If you don’t know the basics of the driving line or the braking points, try driving with the “Driving Line” option turned ON.<

Let’s take a look at a run through High Speed Ring with one of the mid-sized cars, the Honda Integra Type R ’04. Out of the mid-sized cars in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, this one offers very good performance for its price. With its powerful 220 horsepower engine and front wheel drive, it is very stable and easy to drive even for the novice driver.

On the first corner, a banked, wide corner to the left, the key is to enter from the extreme outside and keep steering correction at a minimum. In an Integra with S3 tires, you can clear the corner at full throttle. As you go deeper into the corner, the radius of the corner changes and becomes tighter. Because of this you want to drive on the outer side, and gradually turn inward. This will make your corner exit line easier as you head back towards the right side of the track. The S3 tire is a high grip tire, so you may even be able to move your driving line pretty far inward. Try out a number of lines to see what works best for you.

The visibility at the next corner isn’t very good, making it difficult to set up your driving line. If you decelerate too late here, your cornering line will be forced towards the outer side, making your exit line out of the corner more challenging. What is important here is to make sure you hit your clipping point (point where the car gets closest to the inside corner), but in order to do this, you need to decelerate early. Of course it is the easiest to use the optional driving line display as a guide, but if you are not relying on this, it is probably best to use the overhead crosswalk as a guide, and start braking just as you pass underneath it. If you can get the front end to turn in, all you have left to do is to open the throttle and accelerate.

How well you handle the next section, an S curve that goes right then left, has the largest effect on your lap time. The line should be set up so that you go out/in/middle when clearing the first right corner, then middle/in/out to clear the left corner of the latter half. What is important here is to try not to end up on the outside when exiting the first right corner, so brake early and avoid understeer. If you turn tightly around this right corner, it will become easier to approach the left corner in the latter half, and you will be able to raise your exit speed out of this section. It is important to control your speed with the accelerator while cornering, making sure you do not end up on the outside for the second turn. Aim your car to drive over the inside cornerstone as you turn to the left, then give it full throttle early to exit the corner once the car has changed directions.

Once you make it to the last big corner, attaining a fast exit speed is the key to achieving a faster lap time. First of all, you want to enter the corner from the outside, and exit towards the outside as usual, but because you need to keep to the inside of the corner for some time when turning here, you need to adjust your speed with the accelerator so that you do not suffer from too much understeer. In an Integra with S3 tires, as long as you are careful when entering the corner, it is possible to clear the corner at full throttle from midway through the turn. You’ll need to learn the required rhythm by actually driving. What you want to avoid here the most is going into the corner too fast, and ending up with a wide driving line due to understeer. You’ll need to control your vehicle’s speed well in order to maintain a good line here.