As tyre characteristics play a predominant role in vehicle dynamics analysis, realistic description in vehicle modelling is of high importance. Based on an analysis of the current state of art in tyre characterisation, it is shown that substantial discrepancies occur between measured and simulated vehicle dynamics. In this paper a hybrid method is presented, based on the classification of tyre characteristics in two categories -structural and friction quantities-for which subsequently dedicated measurement procedures are developed. It is shown that, after combining the independently identified classes of characteristics using a mechanical-analytical model, vehicle dynamics simulation accuracy is increased to within the margin of precision of vehicle dynamics measurement.