VIDEO: ON THE LOOSE, ep. 8. Owning the night with the RAV4 rally car

Driving a rally car takes on a whole new dimension when night falls. For some, it's a claustrophobic, unnerving environment where the speed falls and the fear rises. But for others, it's another opportunity to be better than the rest.

Ryan Millen, driver of the near-stock Toyota RAV4 rally car that made its competitive debut in 2015, is definitely in the latter category. Competing at night is second nature for the seasoned desert racer, and the added intensity and focus of stage rallying in the dark is something he loves.

Millen and his navigator, fiancée Christina Fate, got their first opportunity to rally at night on the Gorman Ridge Rally, an intense day/night event that takes in the twisting dirt roads of Southern California's Hungry Valley SVRA complex.

"Before the rally, I was like, 'Cool man!'" says Millen. "The night time is what I was looking forward to. I want rain, I want fog, I want dust, I want night time. I want it to be tough."

And it was certainly that, with many of the competing cars falling foul of the undulating, fast dirt roads even before darkness fell. But when the going gets tough, the tough crank it up another notch...

"We did really good at night," says navigator Fate. "Ryan said they were dropping like flies at night, and we did really good."

How good? Check out the latest On The Loose, episode 8, "They were dropping like flies..." to find out.

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

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

The family-friendly, compact crossover SUV competes against rally-honed machinery, including Mini Coopers and Ford Fiestas, in a number of West Coast-based events during the 2015 season.

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.

• To watch episode 1,

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• To watch episode 2,

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• To watch episode 3, 

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• To watch episode 4,

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• To watch episode 5,

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• To watch episode 6,

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• To watch episode 7,

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