Need a good controller for PC racing games

I just got GRID off of the Steam sales and am looking for a good controller/gamepad to play it with. Any recommendations?

From gaming Corv1nus

• If you didn't want to purchase an all out steering wheel for the PC you could do an xbox controller connected to the PC.

  KontrolFreek also makes a knob attachment called the "SpeedFreek" specifically designed for racing/flight games for xbox controllers that looks like it would work pretty well (I have the "FPSFreek" of the knob attachment and I love it, but I haven't tried the SpeedFreek yet)

  Dave : I'm using the xbox controller myself and it's very very good: Durable, not too expensive, feels good!

  Corv1nus : Yeah, I think I will go with the 360 controller.

  Dave : @Jon Erickson thx for pointing us towards KontrolFreak. I'm going to purchase a speed freak^^

  Nick T : Good controller, plus usable in tons of other games nowadays (I think it's an absolute requirement for "Games for Windows" branded product)
  From Jon Erickson

• I have Logitech Driving Force GT and it's great. Main reason i chose this one is 900 deg. steering. Which means you can rotate the wheel 2.5 times in each direction. many cheaper wheels will only have 180 or 270 deg steering. It is sold as PlayStation controller but you can download PC drivers from Logitech website.

  If you got more money You can buy Logitech G25 or G27

  Also whatever wheel you choose make sure it has force feedback (avoid any wheel with vibration feedback etc.) With vibration feedback the wheel just vibrates in some situations, while force feedback will physically counter your steering when turning like in a real car.

  Corv1nus : Those are both really good but, a tad out of my price range since I'm just starting into racing games for the first time since 2004.
  From Piaskal

• I personally use and recommend the Saitek P990. While the D-pad could be improved, the analogue sticks are extremely responsive, very durable and feel excellent under one's thumbs; as a bonus, it has enough buttons (six main face, four shoulder) to cover virtually any requirement, and their layout is general enough for emulating almost any traditional console game pad, in case you had such a thing in mind.

  A nice bonus feature is the "FPS button", which lets you map arbitrary mouse and keyboard commands to the joypad buttons, which is perfect for older games which may not have native pad support, or simply for convenient macros.

  From Ignis Umbrae

• Another gamepad proposal

  Hi Corv1nus, I personally use the xbox controller and therefore upvoted Jon Erickson's answer. From my point of view, there's one more option: The Thrustmaster Firestorm Dual Analog 3. It isn't as good quality wise as the xbox controller is, especially not the buttons. But I recommend it for two reasons:

  1. Good and precise analog sticks
  2. If You're a hardcore gamer, any gamepad will wear out. The ultra low price of the Thrustmaster can help You save quite a bit money.
  From Dave