By alley - Jun 17, 2015, 4:27 PM ET

NEW VIDEO! ON THE LOOSE, ep. 3. Shakedown time for the Toyota RAV4 rally car

As the clock ticks down to the Toyota RAV4's rally debut, it's time for Ryan Millen to shake it down and see how it performs.

On The Loose, Episode 3, "We're a three-man army..." sees Millen, his girlfriend and navigator Christina Fate, and lead mechanic Brian Hoeppner take the rally-prepped RAV4 to the California/Arizona border to put it through its paces on some suitably fast and rough roads.

The first shakedown is always the moment of truth, and the nerves are building as the RAV4 emerges from its trailer and heads out to the gravel-strewn roads outside of Blythe, Calif. How will it handle? Will it be quick? Will anything break? And how will Ryan and Christina adapt to the demands of calling and following pace notes? Check out Episode 3...

The back story: Ryan Millen, son of rally legend Rod and a 2014 SCORE Tecate Baja 1000 class winner, is switching to stage rallying this year in a production-based 2015 Toyota RAV4 LE.

Not an obvious choice? You could say that, but the 30-year-old Millen wouldn't have it any other way.

The family-friendly, compact crossover SUV will be competing against rally-honed machinery such as Ford's Fiesta and the Subaru WRX in a number of West Coast-based events, starting in the fast forests of Idaho.

Sure, it's a challenge, but taking a different approach is what makes it such a compelling project. And Millen is confident that the road car RAV4 is a capable platform from which to develop a competitive rally racer.

RACER.com likes to do things differently, too, so we're following Ryan as he builds, tests and races his RAV4 with our On The Loose video series, plus blogs and feature stories through the year.

The rally RAV4, built to 2WD Open Class rules, sports a stock transmission and a stock 2.5-liter, four-cylinder, double-overhead cam engine that pushes out 176hp and 172lb.ft of torque. Millen and his crew removed more than 500lbs of stock weight, while adding a roll cage, gravel-spec rally tires, and upgrading to front and rear TEIN suspension.

Stay tuned for upcoming episodes of On The Loose. Meanwhile, for more on Ryan, check out

ryan-millen.com

, and to find out more about the 2015 Toyota RAV4, go to toyota.com/RAV4.