Game controller for steering cars? Not on your life

James May in Top Gear makes a compelling case for the argument that some things - cheese graters, bathplugs and steering wheels among them - have reached the pinnacle of engineering and cannot be significantly improved upon.

"It's all very well trying to express your 'design literacy' through your choice of bathroom fittings, but sooner or later, you're going to have to admit that only a rubber bung on the end of a chain is truly reliable. We've known it for several hundred years. Sink plug - job done."

James is dismayed at the news that some car designers think we should be steering cars with buttons like we'd control a GTR playing on our PS3.

So am I. Thirty minutes on the PlayStation around the Nurburging and my thumbs are knackered. A steering wheel doesn't need constant pressure to hold a given direction, but a thumb button does. Imagine a five hour drive!

Not on your life, mate.