Cars and Coffee was a success! Both cars made it there and back under their own power. The parking lot where it was held was about 20 miles away; we stopped for gas on the way down, near the house, and on the way back I filled up the Jag again. Its still running on just the one 7 gallon tank, so I wanted to make sure it was full. Used 2.2 gallons for 38 miles of driving, so ~16 mpg. Not too terrible. Most of the drive was on 2 lane blacktop through rolling farm country. Pretty drive for an early Sunday morning.
We rolled into the C&C a few minutes before 8, parked and went down to have breakfast. The next 2 hours were fun- we walked around with the kids, talking to other folks about their cars. There were a few families there, which I was encouraged by. One dad came over with his kids to look at the Jag, and I let the kids hop in and check it out- they were about 4 and 2, I'd guess. The older one, a boy, commented how much he liked it. I told him, well, maybe you'll own one some day. Gotta light the fire.
Before we left- I'd noted some pinking under acceleration on the drive there. Since my tool kit was in the boot, I decided to trim the base timing back a few degrees before heading home. Of course, when you open the bonnet with a bunch of other old car owners about, you immediately attract a crowd. One fellow (who I suspect was not an old car guy) peered over and asked what I was doing; when I replied "Setting the timing" he replied "You can just...do that?" Yup. I can. With a 7/16 spanner and a flat blade screwdriver.
The drive home was better, no pinking, but when we stopped to refuel Mrs VCH informed me that my brake lights seemed to have packed up. As it turns out, when tinkering with the distributor I'd inadvertently knocked one of the spade terminals off the pressure switch mounted on the brake booster. Last night I cleaned and tightened the terminals and the brake lights worked again. The left one was slightly dimmer than the right; I overhauled it, cleaned the grounds and terminals, installed a new 1157 bulb, and now they both work great.
The only other major issue now is there seems to be a strange metallic noise coming from the front wheels. The noise only happens on turns, and generally only on the unloaded wheel- that is, when turning right, the right side front wheel makes the noise, and vice-versa. It sort of has a pulsation to it, which is speed dependent. Odd. When I pull the front wheels to replace them I'll look into it more in-depth. The new tires/wheels should be here this week. For now, it'll stay garaged.
Oh, and the new exhaust sounds great. Quiet at cruise, with a bit of a rasp under acceleration. 
