The paper presents the processing and mechanical characterization of chopped carbon fibre reinforced homogenous and functionally graded vinyl ester composites and also reports on their sliding wear characteristics respectively. The sliding wear characteristics are studied with the help of POD test employing the design of experiments approach based on Taguchi's orthogonal arrays. Dynamic mechanical analysis is carried out of the investigated homogenous/FGMs composites to investigate the overall stiffness/flexibility, so as to improve the specific wear rate. Present study reveals that graded composite possess good mechanical and wear characteristics compared to homogenous composites. SEM confirms the graded dispersion of carbon fibre in the matrix.