Audi builds six-door, eight-seat A3 cabrio

Yesterday Audi Germany posted a series of photos of a unique XXL A3 cabriolet to its Facebook page.

Featured in the posts are what appears to be a one-off super-sized cabriolet based on the previous-generation A3 that went out of production in 2013.

The open-top vehicle feature a massively stretched wheelbase to accommodate an extra row of seats, as well as an additional pair of specially designed doors in the centre.

The car seats a total of eight people, including the driver, in a 2-3-3 layout.

With the Facebook posts simply titled “Unique â€" The Audi A3 cabrio in XXL”, Audi has yet to indicate whether the car seen here has a extended and functioning folding soft top.

The basis used for this one-off XXL cabrio is a pre-facelift version of the second-generation five-door A3 hatchback.

In some of the photos, the car is pictured with a flag mounted atop the front fender. This banner features Bavaria’s coat of arms overlaid on an alternate version of the Bavarian state flag.

Ingolstadt, where Audi is headquarted, lies about half way between Nuremberg and Munich in the heart of the German state of Bavaria.

It’s not immediately clear why Audi built this car, but given the age of the people sitting in the second and third rows of the image above, it’s possible the super-sized A3 cabrio was built as part of the company’s apprenticeship or internship programmes.