While on yet another dive into the jet-stream Jesse Abney emailed me earlier today to remind me of a story he wrote a few weeks ago to detail the controller settings for SHIFT suggestion release week was a perfect time to republish the story so without further ado I bring you Jesse Abney: "SHIFT has introduced one of Need for Speed's more complex controller options. This is intended to provide more configurability to the simulation players, deepening the level of control they have with the game's controller & wheel intelligence.
 
A quick definition is provided below to help determine what's good to touch or best-left unaltered. Don't forget to use the DEFAULTS option if settings get tweaked too far. 
 
Steering Deadzone - The smaller the value the smaller the deadzone. For steering wheels it is recommended to have this value at 0%. | NOTE: These next few deadzone settings for a gamepad are best-left unaltered.
 
Accelerator Deadzone - The basic description for all the deadzones are the same. For the initial range of motion no input is reported, and then starts when the end of he deadzone has been reached. On top of these additionl recommendations can be added.
 
Brake Deadzone - As above - For the initial range of motion no input is reported, and then starts when the end of he deadzone has been reached. On top of these additionl recommendations can be added.
 
Steering Sensitivity - This setting adjusts how sensitive the steering across the input span. With 50% sensitivity it is equally as sensitive at the beginning of the range as at the end of the range. This can make the steering feel twitchy on a game pad, thus it is recommended to have a lower sensitivy setting which makes the steering a bit less sensitive for small inputs. For a steering wheel it is recommended to have this setting at 50%. 
 
Acceleration Sensitivity -  Same as above, a value lower than 50% means the input is less sensitive in the beginning of the input span.
 
Braking Sensitivity - As defined above. If the default setting is not responsive enough (may well become car & performance specific), it's recommended to make slight adjustments & test.
 
Speed Steering Sensitivity - This setting reduces the sensitivity of steering at speed. A high value applies maximum effect to make the car stable to drive down straights with a gamepad. Lowering the value will make the car feel sensitive and twitchy at higher speeds. For a multiturn steering wheel it is recommended to set this value to 0%, for other wheels a value around 50% is recommended.
 
Inverse Shifting - Reverses the default controller shift buttons.
 
Camera Y Axis - Inverts the R-stick camera movement in game.
 
Wheel Lock - This determines how much of the available turn to turn lock to use for the steering wheel. On consoles this is set in degrees measured from lock to lock. On PC it is set as a percentage of the steerings wheels available lock. This can be fine tuned to suit the players preference, with less lock giving more sensitive steering, with too much lock the car will feel unresponsive.
 
FF Strength - Determines the strength of the force feedback effects, 0 means effects are muted, 10 gives the strongest effects.