I don't know about LA, but I live in Pittsburgh and people stop me all the time to talk about the car, especially at gas stations. It's very surprising how many people don't know that the car has a V8 in it, let alone a 5.7 litre! I invariably have to pop the hood to "prove" it, as if the sound of the beast isn't enough.
I also took it to the local car wash once, it's a good one where they have about a team of guys finely detailing everything by hand. They were so excited to wash my car, they took all kinds of extra care and time with it and you couldn't get the smiles off their faces. Then they literally stopped working on the next car (a Mercedes) while they gathered around to talk about my car as it was the first GTO that had been to the car wash. The Mercedes owner didn't mind, though...he was in on the conversation, he loved it too!
I've only heard one negative so far, one day my wife and I were getting ice cream and a teenage kid and his dad were behind me talking about the car (they didn't know it was mine). The dad was going crazy over it and the son was talking very smug about how it's "just a rebadged Grand Am". I could have turned around and said something, but instead I did it the correct way...with a beautiful cloud of rubbery smoke on the way out.