1. A vehicle state estimation system comprising: a vehicle supported by at least one tire, the vehicle operating in transient maneuver states or non-transient maneuver states throughout operational maneuvers of the vehicle; at least one tire-based sensor being discrete from any vehicle-based sensors, the at least one tire-based sensor being mounted to the at least one tire and operative to generate tire-based sensor data, the tire-based sensor data including at least a measurement of tire inflation pressure and a measurement of tire temperature; at least one vehicle-based sensor being discrete from any tire-based sensors, the at least one vehicle-based sensor being mounted to the vehicle separate from the vehicle tires and operative to generate vehicle-based sensor data, the vehicle-based sensor data including at least a lateral acceleration, a yaw rate and a steering wheel angle; an observer model operative to make cornering stiffness estimates from the tire-based sensor data and the vehicle-based sensor data throughout the operational maneuvers of the vehicle; and a cornering stiffness identifier operative to extract and output transient-state cornering stiffness estimates from the observer model cornering stiffness estimates throughout the operational maneuvers of the vehicle.