Abstract Cornering compliance of an automobile influences the transient response of a vehicle and its handling characteristics. The cornering compliance technique provides much better information about the vehicle handling qualities than the understeer coefficient. This paper discusses about the front and rear cornering compliances for a FSAE vehicle. The relationship between the front, rear cornering compliances and the transient response as well as the vehicle dynamic behavior of a FSAE vehicle is analyzed. A bicycle model is considered for the analysis and simulation of the problem. A state space model for the handling behavior is created in MATLAB/Simulink. An in-house test rig was developed to determine the parameters constituting the cornering compliance such as roll steer, roll camber, lateral force deflection steer, etc. The front wheel compliance and rear wheel compliances are determined under static conditions. The FSAE vehicle is dynamically tested for constant radius test, step steer response tests. The experimental data obtained is compared with the simulated data from the state space model.