The DH-8 is a beautiful bike and very well built. I unfortunately never felt comfortable on it. I am tall at 6'3" but I like small frames. I ride a medium Turner DHR for example. The problem is that Cortina changes the frame size by supplying differant seat towers. This is all fine and dandy if you only ride seated. Except much if not most downhill riding is done standing up. So the real measurement that matters is headtube to bottom bracket since this determines coqpit size while standing. The Cortina front triangle is very small, smaller then my son's small Turner DHR. So if you can fit it, then it is an awesome frame. Nice feeling progressive suspension.
The other thing to consider is although it has horizontal drop outs it has verrrrry long chainstays. I'm going by memory but this should be pretty close, I think the shortest you can get is 18" or very close to that. That's pretty long. Nice and stable at speed but can be tough to get the front end up.
As far as the RockShox Pro Deluxe, don't worry about it. Cortina custom valves them in house for the frame. If you are buying it used then send it back to them and get it revalved for your weight and riding style. Runs around $70. I am firmly convinced that most the problems they had with the Pro deluxe is because the compression adjustment works exceptionally well. Very wide range, an makes a noticible differance in even 1 click of adjustment. My guess is many riders use it to compensate for to light of a spring and crank it up to high and blow the shock. I had mine tuned exactly to my weight and riding style and never had a problem. It was actually an awesome shock.
The other thing to watch out for, especially if it is a older one. Is the headtube. Cortina did have some issues with them ripping right off, quite unexpectedly in some instances. The headtube itself is also pretty thin, at least it was on mine. Looked like the headtube on an XC bike. Like 1/8" wall thickness and then releaved (even thinner) towards the middle. Pretty easy to ovalize and a steelset won't work because it steps up (inside diameter gets larger) past the machined area were the headset presses in. Not sure if that makes sense. Can't think of another way to explain it. Sufficent to say only a standard headset would work. The newer ones may have been improved.
I had an Stratos S8 in 01. It was a great feeling fork but pretty heavy. I personally never had any problems with mine, but I didn't run it very long.
Hope this helps.
Rick