Sorry for any negative experience you may have encountered.
I am in Newport Beach (work) and Huntington Beach (home) near the SoCal coast all the time. You would be hard-pressed to find an area with more Ferraris, Lambos, Veyrons, Audi R8s, FGTs and anything else you can think of. That said, people generally go crazy over my GTS Blue/Silver Stripes, Blk/Gry Int. '08 Coupe with HREs. The want to have a photo with it, they take photos when I am driving down PCH, etc. When I was at a light and a Ferrari was also at the light (355 I think) yesterday, I had one group of guys and gals hang a handful of dollars out the window and give the Viper "thumbs up" and the Ferrari "thumbs down." Similarly, at the track (road courses) the Viper is very well received. No M3 drivers come up and smack talk. The ACRs just CRUSH most everything at the track. I let my buddy who has a Turbo Porsche drive the car once back in the canyons and he was very impressed; he is also afraid to take his car anywhere other than to Cheescake Factory or Starbucks.. Honestly, about the only group that I have found to be somewhat resistant are the Porsche GT3 drivers who believe that the GT3 is the only car to have (a good car to be sure, but not the only car). Btw, my daily drivers have always been BMWs. I love them but this does not mean that I cannot also love my Snake! I did not check the Audi gripes, but honestly, other than the V10 R8, they have no sportscars to speak of--just nice A--B appliances. So enjoy your Viper proudly! Btw, I did undergrad at ASU and was a tennis pro during school at Paradise Valley Country Club. I thought that the people were very nice in AZ in general and in Phoenix, Tempe and Scottesdaly in particilar.