That's a tall order under any circumstances, but Nissan's President and CEO, Carlos Ghosn, sent the degree of difficulty skyrocketing when he agreed to green-light the GT-R project on two conditions: first, the base price had to be about $70,000; and second, the car had to be profitable, i.e., not merely an image-boosting "halo car" that would be sold at a loss. Improbably, the GT-R has succeeded on all counts. Ghosn's conditions have been met, and we can confirm that the 2009 Nissan GT-R is indeed a match for its Bavarian benchmark at the track. Never before has such stratospheric factory performance been available at such a reasonable price; in fact, you'd have to look long and hard to match the GT-R's performance at any price.