First of all you will need a 1024x1024 template. There have been some made by some of the big painting sites, but they have not been released to the general public (and that includes me). So either you will need to create one at that resolution, or do the next best thing, which is doing a 'pixel resize' to 200% on any 512x512 template you have. Your finished car will end up being a hybrid, with normal resolution shading and Hi Res graphics. It's better than nothing.

Once you have finished painting your car, save it as a .bmp in your "/series/cup/" folder. Fire up WinMIP, locate this file, and convert it to a .mip file and save it in the same location. Now it's decision time. Which marque will the car be? If it's a Pontiac, rename this .mip file to card_pontiac.mip. For the other three makes, replace the 'pontiac' portion of the filename with your desired car make. For templates that are not one of these makes (BMW, etc), just choose any one of these.

Now start up N2002. Go to Opponent Manager and create a new car. Fill out all of the info on the top right, name the file, etc. Choose the make you saved that .mip as. Now save the file. That's it! To verify you made the car correctly, select your car, and go into the Paint Shop. If it was made correctly, you will notice that the car texture looks all wrong in the painting area. Don't freak out, the Paint Shop was not coded to accept 1024x1024 templates. But you will notice it looks fine in the car selection screen. You now have a High Resolution car to race with/against. Just be aware that you will not be able to do any touching up of the car in the game's internal Paint Shop, everything will have to be done in PSP/Photoshop/etc. Also you will not be able to import any new 1024x1024 textures via the N2002 Paint Shop, it will not work (trust me, I tried). The WinMIP (and soon PapyBMP) method must be used.

You can also have Hi Res pitcrews in N2002. The same general method detailed above applies here as well. Go through the same steps, except your final .mip file will be named "pitman.mip". If done correctly, the pit crew will not look "correct" in the 3D view, as with the Hi Res car texture.

If you are doing both a Hi Res pitcrew and car, you will have to convert both to .mips and then create the new car, this will "import" the crew and car at the same time. However it is not neccesary to have both a Hi Res car and crew, you can have a Hi Res car and Standard Res crew, or vice versa. Unlike the inability to import Hi Res textures via the Paint Shop, if you indeed keep one of these two in Standard Res, you still can import textures then. But only the standard size, not the Hi Res part.

If you do not trust that the method worked, simply select the car, go into the Paint Shop, export the texture, and view it in your paint app. Inspection of the file's properties should indicate that a 1024x1024 texture was exported.

I have not heard any news on the new version of PapyBMP, I assume it is still being worked on. I will make an educated guess that it will provide the same results that WinMIP does.

N2002/Car Viewer tip: The Car Viewer will accept 1024x1024 textures.

And finally, here's a screenshot to show the difference in the pit crews in N2002/N4.