Hi guys I'm new to gt5 just wondering if anyone can give me some pointers useful info to get me started thanks
Mogz, I'm sorry you received such an unwelcoming welcome to this community. Not everyone here is so unpleasant. You have done nothing to deserve being called "stupid".
You should NOT feel bad about GT5. GT5 has stuff that GT6 does not (yet?) have.
Certainly, the licenses and special events are a great start.
GT5 has "B-Spec" which is the name of the place where you hire drivers, get them experienced and act as a pit manager for them, guiding them as to how hard they should drive, when to overtake, when to pit and regarding pit stops, you may choose the replacement driver, tire type and refuel quantity. If you provide no guidance they generally do not do so well. These races make money for you, and are a great way to break in your new cars.
Yes, even new GT5 cars need care and attention! Give them an immediate oil change, put about 200 miles or 300 Kms on them and change the oil again to get better performance!
B-Spec is an interesting experience and can be exciting in its own way. The choices you make as the pit manager seriously influence the race outcome and must take into account the skills and moods of the drivers as well as their growing exhaustion during the race. Yes, AI drivers make more mistakes as they tire and you can make it worse by pushing them too hard to go faster.
GT5 also has the Course maker, where you define your own tracks, and can even share them with your friends. It's a bit of a combination of randomness guided by your chosen parameters. When you go in there, study the generated contour map. I find the "Alaska" location the most exciting (if you like driving on snow and ice) and I like to generate tracks with steep dropoffs for jumps followed by tricky corners. If you don't like the look of the current track, click to generate a different one.
GT5 also has a nice facility in online racing where you can "turn collisions off". It's great for dealing with unpleasant online people who not only want to say nasty things to you, but think it's fun to crash you off the track. It's also great for good friends who want to race for best lap time without being disturbed by the other car(s) on the track. Some real life tracks are very narrow, so it can help there.
All cars have a characteristic called Performance Points, "PP" for short. Many events have upper limits on PP. PP is mostly affected by engine and power upgrades. It's also affected by oil changes, break-in period and amount of downforce you apply. Tire type doesn't affect PP, but most events restrict your tire choice. Many upgrades don't affect PP. Such as transmission, suspension, light weight drive shafts and a host of other items. So, if you are struggling to win, maybe you should spend your hard-earned credits on such upgrades. If the PP on your chosen car exceeds the race limit, you can dial the power down in the engine tuning department. If you succeed in one race in a set and find that your car is not eligible for the next in the same set, it's probably because the power crept up as you ran it in.
Make sure you log in to GT5 every day, even if you don't drive. You get a bonus of prize money if you log in on several consecutive days and maintain that attention. The bonus caps out at 200%. Watch for the message. Once you get to 200%, don't slack off, it drops down if you stay away.
The used car lot can provide some bargains, and you may find some old cars in there which may tickle your nostalgia. They can be high mileage cars in need of an overhaul. Overhauls can be expensive. Save your overhaul coupons for work on the expensive cars. The high end cars can cost 500,000 credits to fix up.
When you go to race online, it is probably better to race with people on your friends list than some random bozos. Don't have anyone on your friends list who uses GT5? This is a good place to seek them out. If they post maturely, they will probably race maturely.
Hope this helps.
PS I use both GT5 and GT6