Abstract: A system for predicting vibration or acoustic responses of a vehicle to a predetermined excitation of a candidate tire of the vehicle includes a first accelerometer for measuring tire responses at a test rig to the predetermined excitation of a reference tire mounted on the rig, a second accelerometer, microphone, or other vibration or acoustic sensor for measuring vibration and acoustic responses at a location on the vehicle to the predetermined excitation of the reference tire mounted on the vehicle, and a computer for calculating transfer functions as a ratio of the vibration or acoustic responses from the second accelerometer, microphone, or other vibration or acoustic sensor divided by the tire responses from the first accelerometer. The computer predicts candidate tire responses, similar to the tire responses of the first accelerometer, of the reference tire mounted on the test rig.