Richard Hammond - the face of Telecom’s XT network when it launched in May last year - pulled out of the New Zealand leg of the Top Gear Live show now playing in Auckland.

But if Telecom was hoping The Hamster’s absence would take spotlight away from its mobile network troubles, it was wrong.

Fellow Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May ribbed XT mercilessly during the show's opening night..

A teaser site for "XT Network" has gone live, accompanied by TV ads.

The site, www.testdrive.co.nz, features a video clip starring Richard Hammond, who was in town mid-February for Top Gear Live.

Hammond's clip does not name any telco, but a DNC search reveals that the testdrive.co.nz domain is registered to Chris MacDonald of Waimauku, under his private company digitalmacdonald.