When the gates open at the Frankfurt Messe, earlier Tuesday morning, it will kick off two days of organized chaos.

The biennial Frankfurt Motor Show, officially known as the 63rd IAA, is one of the world’s largest car shows – however you measure it: raw size, number of new product intros, public attendance or media coverage – and one of the most significant.

Indeed, the events of recent months will all converge at the sprawling conference center, which measures nearly a full kilometer from front to back, starting with last week’s news that General Motors will go ahead with plans to sell a 55% stake in its German-based Opel subsidiary.

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Expect a lot of questions to be raised about the impact of that sale on the weakened U.S. maker’s long-term plans.  In recent years, Opel had been playing an ever more critical role as a key product development center for GM, and whether that can continue with the parts supplier, Magna International, now the dominant stakeholder remains to be seen.

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