Know what to expect... A driving sim that isn't hiding up its own a**hole!
If you don't want to be so anal about tuning a car that you have to scrape bugs off the front of the car or empty the ashtray for the sake of that extra 0.001 second round Monza, have a look at this game.
Cars ; lots of very nice fast cars that you can drive and tune. Not a 1.4L Polo in sight. Lambo, Ferrari, Gumpert, McLaren all the proper cars that you actually want to drive (having completed the first 4 versions of Gran Tourismo, I know how tedious it can be doing 10 laps of Laguna Seca in a yarris!) You can quick tune or get a bit more involved and tweek more accurately.
Playing ; Most importantly, they have fixed the handling dynamics that dogged the first Shift game - expect GT or Forza - style handling now although, it still has the EA trademark double-tap brake - oversteer which can be dumbed-down through tuning. The tracks look fantastic, hills and drops look steep and give you that "I'm gonna come off here" experience. The menus are snappy but can look a little crowded at times and things like performance requirements for different races can be a little hard to understand at first.
Graphics; Ignore the fact that it uses DX9, It has to because consoles can't cope with anything like tesselation and complex physics. What they have done graphically is spectacular. For those of you experiencing lag from control while playing, turn the gfx settings down or get a better gfx card. I'm using HD5770 and the game runs 1080p with most settings high (it lags a bit with all settings on high) Camera effects are lovely and the replays are at their usual top-notch EA standard.
Finally, Sound ; I've held this for last, the sound effects are awsome, turbo flutters, wastegate squeal, BOV whistles all very prominent and diverse, Tyre squeal is spot on and the difference between inside the car and outside is believable.
In all a good racing sim that you can pick up and put down as and when you feel like.