Four wheel steering(4WS) systems which can control the lateral and yaw motions of vehicles by steering front and rear wheels simultaneously, have been regarded as effective for improving the stability and handing performance of vehicles. However, since the 4WS systems depend only on the lateral force of tire, they have some limitation due to the nonlinear characteristics of tire related with the saturation phenomenon of lateral force to the slip angle of tire in a near-limit-performance maneuvering range. In this study, in other to evaluate the effect of nonlinear characteristics of tire on the dynamic performance of vehicles, a new concept for driving the cornering stiffness of nonlinear tire by using the "Magic Formula" tire model is proposed. In addition, the nonlinear 4WS vehicle model is constructed based on the proposed cornering stiffness of nonlinear tire. It is noted from simulation that the nonlinear characteristics of tire affect greatly on the 4WS vehicle performance.rformance.