I was hoping to do an in-depth review thread of the Thrustmaster Ferrari wheel, but in-hand it's been discouraging enough for me to have second thoughts.
The most noticeable thing is that it seems to have the same deadzone that the "official"/Agetec wheel is known for, which almost creates the impression of significant input lag during gameplay.
Seemingly one of its benefits is that it can be set to controller mode for games that don't support racing wheels, though I haven't fully tested this yet. I'm hoping to give this a go with OutRun once I get Yu Suzuki Game Works up and running.
The wheel has a long turning range, but also has a strong centering mechanism, which means you really have to grip the wheel hard to move it all the way, which can prove quite straining on your hands/wrists after a while. In theory you could offset this by reducing the wheel's range in game settings, but then this exasperates the deadzone issue.
The pedals are a nice bonus, though they're pretty stiff and end up sliding around on my carpeted floor, so I've stopped using them to focus on the gameplay better. The accelerator and brake paddles on the wheel can then be used, but their position beneath the gear paddles means that you're left to press them with your ring and little fingers, which isn't ideal for two of the primary controls.
So far I've tried it with F355 Challenge and Sega Rally 2. The former played acceptably, though it's debatable whether I'll be setting any track records, and the latter was significantly more difficult than with a controller, thanks to the deadzone throwing off the drifting mechanics.
I'm going to play around with it on a few more games, but I'm not convinced. It looks like it's back to looking into either a Mad Catz MC2, Interact Concept 4 or a Wingman SD solution, and I'm dreading how much any of these will cost.
EDIT: Played with the wheel a bit more this evening, and got to try it with OutRun on Yu Suzuki Game Works. Interestingly, that game worked on the default racing wheel mode, so I guess that game is compatible with racing wheels (can't speak for the Shenmue II version though).
This time, I directly compared driving with the regular analog stick to driving with the wheel, and the difference was night and day. The deadzone in this wheel just kills any chance it has of being the best control method for these games. I'll keep an eye out for a cheap MC2, but certainly after this comparison, the benefits of the good ol' regular controller over using a racing wheel have become clear.