For five decades now, fellow car enthusiasts across the Atlantic watched with envious eyes as the Ford Mustang grew better with each passing generation. Meanwhile they were denied access to the legendary muscle car, unless they could afford extortionary import and registration costs. Ford finally wised up with the sixth-generation Mustang, building it on a global platform that will go on sale in dozens of markets on six continents.

Orders have come pouring in, with buyers in the U.K. alone ordering some 2,000 Mustangs. In an interview with Automotive News, Ford’s chief in Europe Jim Farley revealed that across Europe as a whole more than 8,000 Mustang orders have been put in, with the waiting list stretching until the spring of 2016.

Amazingly that’s actually shorter than the waiting list in Australia, where people placing an order for the Ford Mustang could have to wait until nearly 2017 to take delivery. Ford only just began production of right-hand drive and European-spec models a few weeks ago, and it’s going to take months to work through all those backorders. Surprisingly, the Ford dealer with the highest Mustang sales is in Sweden, where the Blue Oval has a deep fan-base and a vibrant muscle car culture thrives despite the long and cold winters.

The new Mustang is helping boost Ford sales in regions like Russia, which saw a 17 percent increase despite an economy that is officially in recession. There’s a ton of pent-up demand in Europe and elsewhere for the Mustang, and Farley rightly notes that the automaker can’t predict when the initial sales boom will cool off. Only once the excitement wears off can the sixth-generation begin building its legacy in the pantheon of Ford performance cars.