I'm actually pretty excited for this. I thought Shift was garbage when it was first released but after the first patch and some mods from the community it is a lot of fun and looks great! I'm glad the developers have embraced and encouraged the modding community as well. I hope they make it possible to mod this one as well. Here's some mods to check out if you own the game and havn't already. I highly recommend the HD mod and the community patch.

http://www.nogripracing.com/files.php?subcat=92

The Devs have also been listening to a lot of feedback from the hardcore sim community and have been responding and talking to people on various sites. Here's a thread with a dev answering some questions. It's a good sign when you have that kind of relationship with gamers.
http://www.virtualr.net/need-for-speed-shift-2-unleashed-six-new-previews/#comments