Best Pagid Brake Pads: RS29 vs RS19 vs RS14 vs RST-3 vs RSL-1 vs RS44 vs RSC-1
Pagid do not make a “good, better, best” ladder. They make compounds for different jobs, and picking the wrong one is how people end up disappointed by a very good brake pad. The compound code is the whole decision — everything else follows from the U-number on the box.
Here is what each one is actually for, in Pagid's own terms, and which ones we stock.
Quick picks: which Pagid should you run?
- Your first Pagid, mixed track days — RS29. Endurance pad life with enough bite to feel like an upgrade.
- Long stints, or you pay for your own rotors — RS19.
- You want the car to stop now — RS14.
- One pad for a mixed season — RST-3.
- Endurance racing — RSL-1.
- Rear axle on a car that locks up — RS44, with RS14 at the front.
- Your car has ceramic brakes — RSC-1, and nothing else on this list.
Pagid compound comparison
| Compound | Colour | Character | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| RS29 | Yellow | RS19 wear rate, more initial bite | Club racing, long track days |
| RS19 | Yellow | To 600°C, lowest wear, light pedal | Endurance racing |
| RS14 | Black | High bite, fade resistant to 650°C | Touring, rally, GT, single-seater |
| RST-3 | — | Medium high-friction, wide range | GT, touring, rally, prototype |
| RSL-1 | — | Less aggressive than RST, very low pedal effort | Long-distance endurance |
| RS44 | Orange | Disc friendly, stable torque, to 560°C | Rear axle, club racing |
| RSC-1 | — | Cold friction, protects ceramic discs | PCCB and ceramic rotors only |
RS29 (the one most people want)
Pagid describe RS29 as combining the wear rate of the RS19 with a slightly higher coefficient of friction and initial bite. That is the sentence that matters: you are not trading pad life for feel, you are getting a little more of the first bite without paying for it at the end of the weekend.
Pagid list it for endurance cars from Group N through Group A, GT and Sport-Prototypes. In practice it is the default for a club racer or a driver doing full track days, and it is by some distance the biggest Pagid range we stock.
RS19 (endurance)
Pagid do not hedge on this one — they call RS19 the best compound for endurance racing. Constant temperatures up to 600°C (1,100°F) are possible, the friction value is deliberately eased slightly from the RS14 it is based on to improve modulation, and pedal effort stays low enough for cars without a power-assisted brake system.
Their record for it: a multiple winner of the Daytona 24h, Le Mans 24h, Sebring 12h, Spa 24h and Nürburgring 24h, often with no pad change and usually no rotor change across the race. If you are buying rotors as well as pads, that is the number to weigh.
RS14 (bite)
The Black compound, and the sharpest of the family. Pagid call it a medium-high friction compound with high initial bite, an excellent release characteristic and very good modulation. Its high ceramic content gives low heat conductivity, which keeps heat in the pad rather than pushing it through to the fluid.
Fade resistant to 650°C (1,200°F) — the highest ceiling here — with a low wear rate. Pagid list it for touring cars, tarmac rally, GT, WSC, DP, single-seaters and NASCAR. Both RS19 and RS29 are derived from it.
RST-3 (the all-rounder)
A medium high-friction compound, and the one that covers the widest spread of use. Pagid attribute that breadth to its combination of bite, friction and controllability, with low heat conductivity coming from a mix of steel and acrylic fibres, and excellent modulation and release.
If your season is a bit of everything rather than one discipline, this is usually the sensible Pagid.
RSL-1 (long distance)
Engineered for long-distance, endurance-type racing. Pagid cite excellent pad wear under endurance conditions, excellent rotor life, consistent friction in all conditions, good friction stability against temperature and very low pedal effort.
They are explicit that it is less aggressive than the RST pads. Over a three-hour stint that is the point, not a compromise.
RS44 (rear axle)
The Orange compound. Pagid describe it as medium friction, disc friendly, with predictable non-aggressive friction behaviour — stable torque rather than a grab — and fade resistance to 560°C (1,050°F).
The useful part is their own recommendation: run it at the rear with RS14 fronts on touring cars. If your car locks the rear too easily under threshold braking, that pairing is worth knowing. Pagid note it is very popular in Porsche club racing, alongside touring cars, GT and single-seaters up to F3.
RSC-1 (ceramic rotors only)
The one compound here you cannot substitute. Pagid developed the RSC line specifically for ceramic disc applications — PCCB and equivalents — and running an ordinary racing pad against a ceramic rotor is an expensive mistake.
It is built for track days and shorter sprint races, with excellent cold friction, fade resistance and low thermal oxidation of the ceramic disc fibres. That last one is the reason it exists: the compound is protecting the rotor as much as it is stopping the car.
How to read a Pagid part number
Every Pagid pad carries a U-number — U-1203, U-2405, U-8006. That number is the pad shape, not the car. One U-number covers every car that runs that caliper, which is why the same number appears across a Porsche 964, a 944 and a 928.
So if you already know which Pagid fits your caliper, searching the U-number is far faster than searching your car. Several listings also name the brake package in brackets — read it, because front and rear are separate part numbers and a big brake kit changes the shape.
One thing to expect
If you are coming to Pagid from a street pad, they will be noisier and dustier when cold. That is a racing compound behaving the way it was designed to, not a fault. If the car is mostly a road car, that trade may not be one you want to make.
Not sure what to run?
Start at the full Pagid range and filter by compound, or tell us the car, the caliper and what you do with it — we will confirm the shape before you order.