By alley - Jan 14, 2016, 11:55 AM ET

VIDEO: ON THE LOOSE, ep. 9. RAV4 goes Vmax

How fast do we want to go? That's a question Ryan Millen and his navigator/fiancée, Christina Fate, had to ask themselves when they brought their near-stock Toyota RAV4 to the super-quick Prescott Rally in Arizona.

The duo had already posted class wins in the compact SUV's debut season, and Prescott was another chance to earn production category honors. But the event's fast, flowing special stages would take average speeds to a new level and leave them to ponder: How much do we want to push risk versus reward in the quest for another victory?

"Prescott was a lot faster than any of the events we've done so far," says Fate. "The first two stages, I had a hard time with the notes, trying to keep up with the speed."

With some sections topping out at 100mph-plus, treading the fine line between driving fast enough to win and pushing right to the ragged edge is easier said than done in the heat of the competition. But Millen feels he found that groove on the fast Arizona dirt.

"To get any faster, we have to start taking huge risks," he notes. "You know, I don't think the risks are really worth that reward. I feel comfortable at my 100 percent."

But even if he feels he's within his comfort zone, Millen knows it's inevitable that you walk the line for long enough, you're going to trip...

"Are we going to end up in a ditch at some point?" he ponders. "Oh yeah, that's going to happen. Something's going to catch us out..."

So which side of the line did they walk in the Prescott Rally? Check out the latest On The Loose, episode 9, "It's the fastest we've seen..." to find out.

The back story: Ryan Millen, son of rally legend Rod and a 2014 SCORE Baja 1000 class winner, switched to stage rallying in 2015 in a production-based 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 competed 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.

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.