Right temperature in car for one controlling the wheel, historically (8)
I believe the answer is:
torturer
'one controlling the wheel historically' is the definition.
(wheels were historically used for torture)
'right temperature in car' is the wordplay.
'right' becomes 'r' (common abbreviation).
'temperature' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'car' becomes 'tourer' (tourer is a type of car).
'r'+'t'='rt'
'rt' inserted within 'tourer' is 'TORTURER'.
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for torturer that I've seen before include "One using, eg, rack" , "One who intentionally inflicts great pain" , "One deliberately causing great suffering" , "One inflicting pain" .)