David is a friend and I have told him this number of times... (!)
A side shock has friction and it has 'pack'. Pack is when the the shock is asked to move, but doesn't because the initial movement is the piston against a 'wall' of fluid which resists the initial roll. It is worse when you increase the weight of the oil.
Friction is between the piston rod, the o rings and the plastic guides that hold it all in a straight line.
Side dampers have virtually no inertia and no 'pack'. The oil is 'sheared' by the action of the movement of the piston in the cylinder and there is no resistance to it compared to the initial 'pack' of the side damper. There is no friction between the piston and the cylinder - the piston is held in place by the oil.
David always takes a side damper and moves it in and out a lot to show how it loses its effect. However, in the car, the damper never moves more than 2mm or 3mm and it never rotates. If you do that it will not lose any effect after 20 minutes of fiddling with it, let alone 8 minutes of racing.
In practice most top drivers find that they can run three or four races before rebuilding the side tubes.
The side tubes are easier to tune using the wide range of oils available. Side shocks are more difficult to tune as eventually that suffer from 'pack' as the oils get heavier. Side shocks need new o rings every rebuild as the o rings expand over time.
David may love his side shocks, but all the other top drivers in the UK use tube dampers and they have tried both in many cases. AE went from their side shock
to side dampers, and every other manufacturer sells side dampers. The reasons for this are as described above. HTH
