Faults:

Cold start injector.

Steering rack leak.

General Comments:

You'd better buy a car in the 50,000 up range if you want to run with these cars.

The TR8 is the most comfortable sports car I've ever driven. The interior is roomy to excess, at 6'4" my feet hit the pedals just right. Great wind protection and vision.

It handles beautifully, but benefits from uprated shocks and bushes in the rear plus 14 or 15 inch tires. Even with 13" (205-60-13) the car tracks around any corner. It's a great autocrosser.

The TR6 is a nice std. roadster, but park a TR8 next to it and it becomes invisible. They are simply too common.

Performance wise, 5L Mustangs and that type of car need not show up, you can stay with a Corvette and most anything else on the open road. They are fast, but pleasant to drive. The only criticism I have is that the Rover 5 Speed is balky when cold, and you have to be careful not to tow the car or it will burn the transmission up.

The motor is jewel like in its torquey silk feeling. You can start in 2nd gear all day long and it is no problem.

They only made 69 of the 82's, 300 or so Coupes, and the rest roadsters for a total of around 2700.

Faults:

The factory just used many parts from the 4 cylinder when they put in the 8. Within the first three years, under extended warranty:

Needed a new transmission twice (until they figured out to change the oil viscosity needed, and upgrade the oil pump)

Blew the rear end once.

Went through brakes very rapidly (and machining rotors, if I didn't catch it fast enough). Car badly under-braked for the power, and disks only on the front.

Once that was sorted, all was good for the next 15 years or so, until electrics started going one by one.

No problems with the running gear, even though did a lot of performance mods to it.

Went through about 4 convertible tops in 25 years.

General Comments:

Fabulous, once you got the right stuff dialled in.

Suspension was initially terrible, especially on the North American model that had the rear end raised even higher, for our hillbilly tastes, I assume. I dropped the rear end 2.5 inches, the front 1.5, put in hardened coils and spax gas shocks, P7's, handled like it was on rails. Before that, nearly killed myself several times when not too difficult corners turned into 360 degree slides.

Very fast. Did the Holley 4bbl mod and a few other things, probably added 70 hp, could blow by a lot of fast american cars. Very tall gearing, got it up to 145 mph before topping out in 5th. (extrapolating the indicated speed to the revs).

It came with a weird combination of Whitworth and American inch, and metric threads, between, and sometimes within parts. Always easy to put the wrong type of bolt in the hole, and strip things nicely.

Mucho fun. great for everyday, long road trips, occasional slaloms. Oddly enough, good in snow. Aerodynamics such that you could have the top down in rain or snow, and not get wet if doing over 25 mph.

Huge amount of cabin space - it's a two-seater, but the same outside size as a 66 Mustang. Great for us tall folks. Lots of trunk space too.

Impossible to sleep in. It is possible to have sex in it though, if you're sufficiently motivated!