Interestingly, I can’t find anything in the regulations for kit cars that specifically prohibits a non-wheel-based steering system. There are regulations surrounding how difficult the steering is to move (section [05]), and it must also have no sharp corners that you could bang your head on [12], and must collapse in a crash [14] (ie not just spear through the driver).
In fact, most of the way through, they’re referred to as “steering controls”, although the word “wheel” does pop up. Notably, they do mention adaptations to allow a disabled person to drive, so in that case I think you’d get away with most any form of control device (as long as it didn’t block your view, or have sharp points on it etc.).
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Showing your age there…
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On youtube, they call it a “hack.”
The vise-grips are probably better that Ford’s 1965 “Wrist-twist” steering:
Each hand got its own tiny steering wheel, complete with thumb trap, attached to the ends of a fixed yoke.
It was a genuinely terrible idea. 
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I had a VW Rabbit where the linkage for the clutch broke, so this was the only way I could drive it. Went a couple weeks like that before I could take the time to fix it. It did take quite a bit more planning ahead than usual, though. I had to be sure I parked on a hill and avoided stop signs (especially ones headed uphill). The car was light enough that I could give it a push on flat ground and then start it in gear, but that gets old pretty fast. In reality, I just ran a lot of red lights and stop signs.
Thx, never seen that before. Might have been terrible but I love the aesthetic.
To make a turn in most 1960s-era American cars required hand-over-hand steering; the wheel had to go around several times, and often required considerable force. I learned to drive on cars like that, in fact failed my UK test the first time I took it because I made a hand-over-hand turn; the examiner said I was supposed to repeatedly shuffle my hands along the wheel, something that would have been difficult in my father’s Buick, and for sure impossible in this Ford. However, I think hand-over-hand steering would also have been tricky and dangerous on a steering wheel like this wrist-twist.
also @anothernewbbaccount
Reminded me of the day I had to start my Volvo 240 in first, because it was in first and was not coming out, and speed shift all the way to the mechanic, in Maine, like 35 miles, fortunately there was not a lot to slow down for. I haven’t thought about that one in several years, thanks!
Do not try it on a modern car with syncromesh. Old habits die hard, new transmissions die a lot easier.
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Ah, good to know! I haven’t tried it in over 20 years ^^'.
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I haven’t in two. 
Oh dear. That sounds… Expensive. At least, if I understood you correctly.
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It could have been a lot worse. But it also could have been a whole lot better.
Fortunately (YMMV) all my Volvos - I’m on my sixth - have been automatics.
(And yeah, I thought it was not as universal as Bozobub suggested, but, as I said, IANAM.) 
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